Latest feature Films
Bouchra
As the Moroccan director Bouchra chronicles her personal exploration of queer identity on film, the narrative layers become increasingly blurred. For this autobiographically inspired piece of metafiction, Meriem Bennani and Orian Yani Barki combine minimally animated animal figures with real-life backgrounds.
Bouchra is a jackal in her mid-thirties from Morocco living for some time now in Brooklyn, New York. In her cramped twelfth-floor flat, she still has no furniture and the ceiling is constantly dripping. Nevertheless, the young filmmaker works tirelessly on her semi-autobiographical project, exploring her identity as a lesbian and the resulting strained relationship with her mother, who lives in Casablanca with the rest of Bouchra’s family and has skilfully avoided the subject for nearly a decade. Under the pretence of doing research for her film, Bouchra now hopes to remedy this during long-overdue phone calls back home.
Following the huge success of the web series “2 Lizards” by Meriem Bennani and Orian Berg, which was created during the Corona pandemic, “Bouchra” is their long-awaited feature film debut. The two have not only written the script and directed the film, but also voiced the film’s main characters in English, French and Arabic – including Yoni, a lizard that will likely be familiar to fans of the web series. The film was animated using the open-source 3D software Blender, with the backgrounds designed using live-action footage from New York and Morocco.
The outcome is a surrealistic portrayal of the artist’s life in defiance of cultural norms, featuring hypnotically luminous animation and poignant emotions. (Yuna Hoch)
Bouchra is a jackal in her mid-thirties from Morocco living for some time now in Brooklyn, New York. In her cramped twelfth-floor flat, she still has no furniture and the ceiling is constantly dripping. Nevertheless, the young filmmaker works tirelessly on her semi-autobiographical project, exploring her identity as a lesbian and the resulting strained relationship with her mother, who lives in Casablanca with the rest of Bouchra’s family and has skilfully avoided the subject for nearly a decade. Under the pretence of doing research for her film, Bouchra now hopes to remedy this during long-overdue phone calls back home.
Following the huge success of the web series “2 Lizards” by Meriem Bennani and Orian Berg, which was created during the Corona pandemic, “Bouchra” is their long-awaited feature film debut. The two have not only written the script and directed the film, but also voiced the film’s main characters in English, French and Arabic – including Yoni, a lizard that will likely be familiar to fans of the web series. The film was animated using the open-source 3D software Blender, with the backgrounds designed using live-action footage from New York and Morocco.
The outcome is a surrealistic portrayal of the artist’s life in defiance of cultural norms, featuring hypnotically luminous animation and poignant emotions. (Yuna Hoch)
Info
Duration 83'
Country IT/MA/US, 2025