Moroccan minister premiers plan to revamp cinemas
Morocco’s Culture and Communications Minister premiers a new script to revamp 150 cinemas across the country, according to AFP.
Minister Mohammed Mehdi Bensaid debuted the plan on 6th March to ensure that all small-medium towns within the twelve Moroccan regions have access to a cinema in the interest of boosting the Moroccan film industry.
Emphasising cultural revitalization, Bensaid revealed that the construction and renovation of 150 new cinemas will allow citizens to excercise their cultural rights through cinematography.
Furthering the ministry’s commitment to enhancing Moroccan cinema, youths and adolescents will be given discounted entry to the cinemas to encourage their use.
Bensaid shared a post from the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication on X detailing the plan’s release.
Morocco’s film industry and undeniable talent have enticed the likes of Robert De Niro, who told Forbes magazine “The film industry here is really something – and not as many people know about it as they should. Morocco has a whole mystery about it, there’s something very beautiful and lyrical about it.”
De Niro revealed that he was thoroughly impressed by the merits of Moroccan filmmakers such as Narjiss Nejjar and Nabil Ayouch. Nejjar and Ayouch’s films – Stateless (2018), and The Kaftan Blue (2022) – were both presented at the 2023 Marrakech International Film Festival (MIFF), The Associated Press reported.
Last year’s film festival was shadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that devastated western Morocco three months prior to the festival in September 2023.
Director of the MIFF, Melita Toscan Du Plantier, acknowledged the war, stating “We know what’s happening and don’t forget it…But heart is important. Heart is a weapon against obscurity and against conflict.”
Other international film festivals in Cairo and Tunisia were both cancelled in solidarity with the Palestinian people. However, Moroccan Prince, Moulay Rachid declared that the MIFF must go on as the festival is a “bastion of peace that brings people closer together,” that simultaneously elevates Moroccan cinema and artistic expression.
Although, due to Morocco’s conservative society, artistic expression is often restricted or limited in cinema. Although Morocco did not ban Barbie, it censored the film of all and any instances of homosexual and heterosexual intimacy, which is a common practice in the Maghreb country.
AFP/AP/Forbes
