The best Omar Lotfi’s movies

Four childhood friends are reunited when one of them surfaces after twenty years, forcing them to confront a creature straight out of a spine-chilling Moroccan legend.

A Moroccan-Norwegian co-production about the dark side of Casablanca (Casanegra). In a country where good virtues are the norm in public, Casanegra shows the vices: domestic violence, alcohol abuse and drug abuse. Meet Karim and Adil and their struggle in the big city.

In the Medina of Casablanca, Thami, a young man from a conservative family with a lineage of honourable Koranic lawyers, incenses his father as he decides to enter the profession of butchery. Whilst handling the meats, he soon discovers another taboo passion: women and love. “Love in the Medina” is about a journey of initiation, a quest for freedom and Thami’s revolution of romance in ever-changing Morocco.

In a remote village in the mountains, Yzza is still waiting for the monthly package of medicine that her husband Hossein sends to treat their daughter. Failing to have the medicine being a matter of life and death, Yzza decides to go to Casablanca to fetch it. Without a proper address and with little money in her bag, this inexperienced, religious, naïve woman does not even fathom that Casablanca is an enormous metropolis, very far from her little rural village. Yzza’s bag is stolen and in her misfortune Yzza meets a young woman, a prostitute wanted by the police. From adventure to adventure, Yzza discovers the workings of an absurd society where her sensible codes are pushed and shoved. Director Naoufel Berraoui skillfully knits the portrayal of a city swarming with cars and people with the dramatic lives of his characters. A remarkable cast directed with sensitivity in a poignant drama with documentary-like accents.