Second life for "A few events without meaning", a long-banned Moroccan film
An image from the film “Of some events without meaning” © Filoteca de Catalunya
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
From a few events without meaning
is screened on February 6, 2023 in Saint-Denis, in the Paris region, as part of the Regards satellites festival.
A new opportunity to rediscover this Moroccan film by Mostafa Derkaoui released in 1974, now considered a jewel of world cinema.
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Banned and censored for thirty years,
Some Events Without Meaning
, the first film by Moroccan Mostafa Derkaoui, made in 1974, had fallen into oblivion.
Just like its director, author of ten other films.
In 2019, the Berlin Festival restored and screened this film, which has since been screened around the world.
It is considered a jewel of world cinema.
In France, the film is thus presented this Monday, February 6 as part of
the Regards satellites festival
, which takes place at the Cinéma l'Écran in Saint-Denis, in the Paris region, in partnership with the Panorama des cinemas du Maghreb et du Moyen- East.
An avant-garde, committed and free feature film that questions the role of cinema and artists in the face of political oppression.
He only met his audience once.
It was in Paris in 1975. “
It's the first Arab film to be screened at this festival
,” says Mostafa Derkaoui at RFI's microphone.
I had the honor of seeing him pass between two cinematic landmarks:
La Soif du mal
, edited by Orson Wells and
Flight over the Cuckoo's Nest
, by Milos Forman.
And, of course, that's where I said to myself:
"What trouble have I gotten myself into?"
»
A film deemed “
inappropriate
” at the time
The symbolism of the film did not prevent it from being banned and then invisible for a long time.
It was considered "
inappropriate
" at the time by the power in place.
The screenplay, constantly revised and reworked, was considered by critics to be "
radical
", because it went against conventional narrative patterns and constantly questioned the nature of cinematographic language.
In
Of some events without meaning,
it is the story of a film crew who shoots a film and stumbles upon a crime.
Team that decides to follow the criminal, an employee who kills his boss.
"
The boy you see at the beginning getting off a bus, stealing a moped and going to where filmmakers are interviewing people about cinema, it's because of them that he will be apprehended by the police and he finally treats them as collaborators: you are the very system against which you want to fight
”, deciphers Mostafa Derkaoui.
Mostafa Derkaoui found his references in theatre, music and philosophy, far from known codes and beaten paths.
Sophie Delvallé, director of a documentary on Mustapha Derkaoui: "I have always admired his cinema."
Houda Ibrahim
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