Selected for the Quinzaine des Cinéastes (Cannes Film Festival 2023) and doubly awarded at the Mostra de Valence (best actors/best director), the sixth feature film by director, screenwriter and actor, Faouzi Bensaïdi, arrives on May 15 in national theaters , underlines a press release from the film’s producers.
Critically acclaimed, “Déserts” is intended to be a “modern and twilight western” which combines road movie and thriller, in a narrative structure constructed in two parts, says the same source.
This 128-minute film tells the story of Mehdi and Hamid, two long-time friends who work for a collection agency in Casablanca. They are sent to distant villages in the Moroccan south to extract money from over-indebted families…
Shot in 2021 in the Marrakech region, the film stars the duo Fehd Benchemsi/Abdelhadi Taleb, and brings together a cast of important actors, including Rabii Benjhaile, Hajar Graigaa, Mohamed Choubi, Nezha Rahil, Abdelghani Sannak, Nordine Saaden, Mohamed Hmimsa, Brahim Khai, Zhor Slimani and Abdellah Chicha.
“The different chapters of the film bring together the values, traditions and humanity of the old with the brutality of the new. The border is porous, uncertain. A mystery hovers, the characters and stories become entangled. see the film as a round, because the story is made up of ruptures, displacements and roads traveled at full speed”, notes Faouzi Bensaïdi, quoted in the press release.
“With Déserts, I wanted one story and its staging to gradually slip away in favor of another and for a large amount of room to be left to the spectator’s imagination. Burlesque could be tinged with film noir, the social of suspense, and the real, welcoming abstraction, will be able to open onto the cosmic”, he continues.
Theater director and actor, Faouzi Bensaïdi directed his first multi-award winning short film, “La Falaise” in 1997. Then, he co-wrote “Loin” with André Téchiné. In 2000, he directed two short films: “Le Mur”, presented at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes and “Trajets”, awarded at the Venice Film Festival.
His first feature film, “A Thousand Months” received the “Le premier regard” and “De la jeunesse à Un Certain Regard” prizes. Also, several of his films have won awards, including, “WWW – What a Wonderful World” at the Venice Film Festival, “Mort à vente” which won the Art et Essai Prize at the Berlinale, “Volubilis” (Venice Days) , “Summer Days” and “Deserts”.