Moroccan director Asmae El Moudir is hatching her first fiction project.
El Moudir, who won the best director award in Un Certain Regard last year with her documentary The Mother Of All Lies and was on the UCR jury this month in Cannes, is preparing a new drama with the working title, Holy Cow.
The writer-director has been working on the project through the Cannes Residence development programme. The story of Holy cow is about a man, who after years of being unemployed, finds his first job, as a trucker transporting cattle to the Rabat slaughterhouses. He is given the task of transporting a shipment that has just arrived from Brazil, but two cows escape. As mayhem ensues, the driver becomes the scapegoat.
“In this film, my intention is to address the violence of the system and to show there is no difference between animals and people in the eyes of the society…the poorest always pay the price,” the director commented. The director says that the film will have a comedy tone, but not a burlesque one. Insight will be the minority coproducer in the MENA region.
The director is looking for producers and co-producers and was pitching the project in Cannes last week.
El Moudir is working on the first draft of the screenplay which she hopes to finish soon.
This is one of two feature projects that El Moudir is currently preparing.
The other is hybrid documentary
Don’t Let The Sun Go Up On Me. El Moudir is currently working on two feature projects. The other is a hybrid documentary Don’t Let The Sun Go Up On Me
. These are her childhood photos before her illness and her transformation into a ‘child of moon’. This was pitched at IDFA in Marrakech and Atlas Workshops. Al Jazeera has already signed on.
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El Modir will decide which film to show first later this summer.
Screen Critics’ Standout Titles from Cannes 202401001010
