Long before it came out in theaters, the movie MaRock (by first-time director Laila Marrakshi) caused an uproar. The film’s been debated in the Moroccan press for months (and it’s been a cover story for both main French weeklies, Tel Quel and Le Journal) . While secularists and liberals have championed the film as a great step forward for freedom of expression, others have accused it of being a needless attack on Islamic values that most Moroccans hold dear. The Islamist newspaper “Et-Tajdid” called on readers to boycott the film, and the Islamist opposition party the PJD (Justice and Development Party) has asked the government to ban it.
So what’s the fuss all about? MaRock is a teen romance, and in most respects it’s a pretty classic coming of age story. But the teens in questions are the moneyed, Westernized children of Morocco’s elite, and the romance is an inter-faith one.
There are some wonderful performances (notably by the young lead actress, Morjana Al Alaoui , who does a wonderful job capturing the innocent recklessness, the sweet bravado, of a good-hearted teenage beauty; but also by many of the supporting actors). There are also some sharp scenes, here and there, that tackle so-called “taboo” subjects head-on. The furor over the film has focused on the sex and religion-related scenes–the ones that show the relationship between a Jewish boy and Rita, the Muslim protagonist, or the ones that show Rita insouciantly refusing to fast during Ramadan.
Personally, I found MaRock’s protrayal of social realities and tensions more interesting than its supposed critique of religiosity. I liked how the film created interesting contrasts between the very rich and the very poor, put them in the same frame and showed the ways in which they occupy the same space but live different lives, or the way in which they interact. I liked how the privilege of the teens (in a country in which many are desperately poor) was contextualized and questioned.
The film opens with a conversation between two young street kids who sell cigarettes, commenting on the well-off children of Morocco’s elite walking past them to a rave-like party. It then shows a shot of an elderly man (probably a parking attendant) praying between the gleaming BMWs of the young party-goers. Later on, there is a scene in which obnoxious drunken teenage boys hit on a pretty helpless housemaid. The driver and maids in Rita’s house on the other hand are more present than the young girl’s parents, and the affectionate relationships she has with them are given some very nice scenes.
Unfortunately, MaRock starts strong but loses steam. The central romance is resolved by an extremely convenient tragedy, and the final scenes come across as a trite valentine to the director’s own teenage years.
Cross-posted at Moorishgirl.
Ah, the director missed out on a marketing coup, getting banned would have been far cooler and useful.
I dunno — she’s getting tons of attention in Morocco AND people will still pay to see it.
I like the movie as whole but I didn’t like the Title Marock since it does not reflect the reality of the majority of the Moroccan Youth.
I loved that movie a lot, I am a moroccan girl who went to French school. It was noce that for once we are acknowledged as Moroccans.
However, this crazy life-otherwise known as teenagehood- is lived by many other types of Moroccans!!
Forever Morocco, may our country grow free and strong
Saw the movie yesterday.It’s a teenage movie with no real depth.The movie doesnt speak for most of us Moroccans but I still can empathize.It feels like the movie is trying to paint a pink picture of a country that is ridden with poverty and illiteracy.While I didnt like the easy way out in the plot by killing one of the protagonists ,I liked the scene of Rita and her brother on the roof .It reflected the image of Rita coming to terms with her reality and her family.By finally succumbing to her brother’s arms she accepted her fate ,her situation,and her reality.
The accuracy of the movie in regard to its depiction of priviliged moroccan teengager’s life, is beyond a doubt, the closest thing to perfect; nonetheless, this movie would not have recieved HALF the attention it ended up recieving if it weren’t for the controversy that came out of this movie. The filming is rather amateurish, numerous scenes are plain useless (the ending, the filming of rhita’s house, yuri taking off his necklace while making out), and the relationship between Rhita and Mao is rather ambigious, to not say perverted, and I’m sure that wasn’t intentional. I believe that the director of this movie, Laila Marrakchi, depended on the media’s negative reviews to publicise her movie, rather than to inititiate the standard advertisement procedures which all producers complete. If the point of the ending was to make the audience aware of religious intolerance there exists in Morocco, then that’s an utter failure….the moral that came out from this movie, in my perspective, is either 1) don’t drink and drive, or 2) defying your parent’s authority and/or relgion can only harm you!
i like this movie… for one reason it depict life that many teenagers live in morocco… its time to admit that most of teenagers has gone through almost the same experience i mean a lot of girls have relation with either christian or men with no religion and after that movie may be jewish ..who knows