"Halima" Ends Morocco's 27-year Absence from Festival’s Main Competition

The selection of Moroccan director Yassine El Idrissi's gritty drama Halima for this year's Golden Goblet Awards Main Competition marks Morocco's return to SIFF's premier category after a 27-year hiatus.

The film, celebrating its world premiere at the festival, follows Halima, an elderly woman who lives a quiet life by the sea. Her peaceful routine is disrupted by an unexpected phone call, which forces her to confront a past she has long buried.

Shifting smoothly between the present day and memories from five years earlier, the narrative gradually unveils her struggle to keep her home and her involvement in the illegal cannabis trade.

During the film's press conference on June 16, Yassine El Idrissi revealed that his creative inspiration stemmed from his early experiences as a photojournalist.

"Before I started working in cinema many years ago, I was a photojournalist, and that allowed me to travel across Morocco and meet all kinds of people," he explained. "Among them were many individuals on the margins of society, just like our protagonist Halima."

"They are tough and resilient people, bravely facing the hardships of life and fighting against their fate."

Determined to turn the spotlight on these overlooked communities, Idrissi adopted a distinctly realist approach to his filmmaking. Instead of relying heavily on excessive special effects, he captured the most authentic aspects of his characters' lives through natural lighting and subtle sound design.

Lead actor Rabii EI Fakih also shared his own reflections of the movie, describing Halima as a work of great social significance.

"The subject matter of this film is not common in Morocco, but I personally find it very compelling," he said. "It is rich in emotion and conveys a strong sense of positive energy."

In reflecting on his own performance in the film, he said he had poured his genuine emotions into the role and would even feel saddened by the fate of a minor character in the story.

The last Moroccan film to compete in the festival’s top competition before Halima was Women ... and Women (Femmes ... et Femmes), directed by Saad Chraibi, a contender at the 4th Shanghai International Film Festival in 1999.