Page 66 - VH Magazine N°186 - Septembre & Octobre 2020

dOLCE VITA I I Ciné Club

Razzia : “How i want

to bReak fRee”

BY PatRiCK FeRRitY

ho could envision We follow the lives of four lost, unhappy
Moroccan cinema souls struggling to find their place in the
without mentioning modern city: the young pregnant wife
WNabil Ayouch? The of a businessman, living in bourgeois
passion and intensity that he displays comfort and suppressed by her husband,
in his films are undeniable. Razzia, decides whether or not to go through
which translates to “raid”, is set with her pregnancy; a secular Jewish
between the streets of modern-day restaurant owner (Chez Jacques),
Casablanca and the Atlas Mountains, looks after his ill father, his religious
following the stories of five narratives background hinders his search for
over 30 years. There are impressive love, subjecting him to anti-Semitism;
individual plots for each character, a young music enthusiast, arguably the
whose dreams and ambitions tragically most relatable character, is on a quest
become thwarted. to be the Moroccan Freddie Mercury,
The multi-threaded narrative intro- learning French through cassette tapes,
duces the characters in a challenging and dreaming of a musical career in
fashion. Razzia is a powerful follow-up Europe; and the wealthy teenager,
to Ayouch’s previous work, Much Loved, desperately trying to find a release for
which portrayed local prostitution in stress, attempts to come to terms with
Marrakesh. Razzia is undeniably brave, her sexuality.
but also a controversial piece of film Ayouch presents the idea of a cultural
(which I suspect Ayouch revels in). It clash in Morocco that is unable to
begins with a beautiful Berber proverb: reconcile itself, dealing with complex
“Happy is he who can act according to issues including inequality, education,
his desires”. The film takes place over feminism, religion, anti-Semitism, and with two scenes, the first showing most
two timeframes, creating a sense of freedom of expression. Some charac- of the characters meeting at the same
confusion and complexity, beginning ters receive too much space in the plot, party, the second, set on the streets
the 1980s in the rural Atlas Mountains. while others remain underdeveloped. of Casablanca during a night of mob
An inspiring and enlightened teacher, However, there is value in the intensity violence. The gripping and adrenali-
dismissed after the censoring of his of many of the frames throughout the ne-fuelled scenes of protest, expertly
curriculum, must leave his village film. The idea behind the film is that captured by Ayouch, show his direc-
school for Casablanca. The govern- each one of these Moroccans connects torial skill.
ment prohibits the teaching of certain through their stories: regardless of Razzia attempts to deal with complex
subjects, as well as the use of the class, profession, gender, religion, or undercurrents of what Ayouch’s envi-
Berber language in classrooms. language. sions life in Casablanca should be like,
The film then fast-forwards - a bit My favorite scene in the film is when verses that of restrictive religious discri-
unclearly until much later - almost four Hakim, the Freddie Mercury wannabe, mination and economic instability. There
decades to Casablanca in 2015, a city blazingly struts through a hostile neigh- are references to the Bogartian days
struggling with civil unrest created by borhood in Casa, like John Travolta in of Casablanca in the 1940s. A sense of
the rise of the Arab Spring. “Saturday Night Fever”. The film ends nostalgia is created, with the director

66 VH magazine Septembre & Octobre 2020