Jude Law's 'The Order' to kickstart Marrakech Film Festival
The Marrakech International Film Festival will open with Justin Kurzel's thriller The Order, starring Jude Law as an FBI agent who takes on neo-Nazi terrorists. The news was announced on Thursday, adding that the film will be one of seven gala screenings at the Moroccan festival. The festival will be held from November 29 to December 7 in Marrakech and will feature a diverse mix of over 70 films.
Festival to feature a diverse selection of films
The festival's gala screenings will also feature Nabil Ayouch's Everybody Loves Touda, Walter Salles's I'm Still Here, and Mohammad Rasoulof's The Seed of the Sacred Fig. A competition section will include 14 titles such as Said Hamich Benlarbi's Across the Sea and Hind Meddeb's Sudan, Remember Us. Other notable entries include Damian Kocur's Under the Volcano, Mo Harawe's The Village Next to Paradise, and Gabrielle Brady's climate change documentary The Wolves Always Come at Night.
Festival to honor Sean Penn, David Cronenberg
The festival will pay tribute to Hollywood heavyweights Sean Penn and David Cronenberg. Jeff Nichols, the director of The Bikeriders, will be mentoring the Atlas Workshops. The jury panel will be chaired by Luca Guadagnino and feature esteemed members like Iranian director Ali Abbasi, Indian filmmaker Zoya Akhtar, and American actor Patricia Arquette among others.
Payal Kapadia's 'All We Imagine...' will get a special screening
The festival will also host special screenings of internationally acclaimed films this year, including Andrea Arnold's Bird, Edward Berger's Conclave, Mahdi Fleifel's To A Land Unknown, Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light, and UK's Oscar entry On Becoming A Guinea Fowl by Rungano Nyoni. A restored version of the 1988 film The Camp at Thiaroye will also be screened to mark the 80th anniversary of a mass killing incident of French West African troops.
Festival to showcase Moroccan cinema and innovative films
The festival will showcase Moroccan cinema with 12 films across different sections. The Panorama of Moroccan Cinema will include five films by Moroccan directors, including world/international premieres of Simone Bitton's The Thousand and One Days of Hajj Edmond, Abdeslam Kelai's Nocturnal Sonata, and Jawad Rhalib's Since I Was Born. The 11th Continent program will present 13 innovative fiction and documentary films, including Miguel Gomes's Grand Tour and Kamal Aljafari's A Fidai Film.
