Our forbidden places

A film by Leila Kilani

Running time 105′

Synopsis

The Moroccan authorities resorted to torture and forced disappearances. This repression against opposition parties started at the beginning of the 1960’s and worsened in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Members of different opposition groups but ordinary citizens too were systematically abducted and detained in secret centres: barracks, farms and villas, airport hangars were used as detention centres.

In Morocco, at t the beginning of 1990’s, there was what was already called the “democratic transition”.

In July 1999, King Hassan II died. In April 2004, the consultative committee announced the creation of “a commission for truth and reconciliation” aimed at hearing the testimonies of the victims and of the relatives and friends of the deceased.

In the last ten years the deceased’s friends and relatives and the victims who had been forbidden to tell their tragic experience have at last been able to do so. Morocco is reflecting itself through the representation of the years of darkness.

In Morocco during these twenty years, no one could see, no one could hear but everybody knew. Obsessed about its dark past, Morocco has now started to analyse its collective memory.

The investigating work of the Commission for the truth will be the common theme of the film. The film will follow the investigations and the testimonies of the Commission. It will end on the conclusion it will render.

These characters are not only the witnesses of  a past which links them to their country forever, they are also inhabitants of this land trying to cope as they can. For twenty years they have suffered of being invisible. Today they are still cut out from the rest of Moroccan society by the wall of incommunicability their experiences, torture and banning have built.

Fiche technique

with

Hassan Al Bou and Leïla & Fadwa,

Rouqia Ait Shaykh-Harrafi, sa fille Najat et sa petite fille Zineb,

Saïd Hadan et sa mère Rahma,

Mohamed Errahoui et sa mère Yto,

Et aussi

les membres de l’Instance Equité et Réconciliation,

tous les coordinateurs et personnels encadrant les victimes.

Director     Leïla Kilani

Photography     Eric Devin/Benoît Chamaillard

Editing     Leïla Kilani/Tina Bass

Co-Producers   CDP, INA and Socco Chico, with the participation of RTBF –

TSR – TV3 – UR /Swedish Education Broadcasting – Moroccan Cinema Center