Al-Boraq

Shining

Forum 2017

After the establishment of a national television broadcast channel in the 1970s, the Centre Cinématographique Marocain (CCM) shifted its production mandate to generate content for it. The same decade also marked the beginning of political repression, strong policing of artistic expression and intolerance of dissent. Bouanani and R’chich were filmmakers working at the CCM who were regarded as subversive provocateurs and rarely allowed to direct films. Crafted exclusively from film archives, Thakirah Arba’at ‘Ashar (1971) was Bouanani’s first feature, but the censors forced him to cut it down from 2 hours and 18 minutes to 24 minutes. Abdelmajid R’chich’s Al-Boraq (1973) is a short fiction about a man who fights against the seizure of his land by powerful developers. And lastly, Bouanani’s Al-Manabe’ al-Arba‘a (1977), a very low-budget fantastical adaption of a poetic fable, features his wife Naïma Saoudi, who also worked as an art director and set designer. It is his only film in colour, which convinced him that his vocation was to work in black and white.

by Abdelmajid R’chich
with Mohamed Majd, Mohamed Miftah, Fouzia Alaoui, Abdeljabaar Louzir, Zahra Daoudi, 1972 Arabic 27’ Black/White

With

Mohamed Majd
Mohamed Miftah
Fouzia Alaoui
Abdeljabaar Louzir
Zahra Daoudi

Crew

Written and Directed by	Abdelmajid R’chich
Cinematography	Mohamed Sekkat
Editing	Abdeslam Sefrioul

Additional information

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Abdelmajid R’chich

Born in 1942 in Kenitra, Morocco. He graduated from the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC) in Paris, and then joined the Université libre in Brussels, where he began studying Anthropology and Art History. In the years that followed, R'chich worked as a director of photography, producer, director and technical director. He made his first film, Sitta wa Thaniat 'Ashar, along with Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi and Ahmed Bouanani, in 1968. In 1987, R'chich founded the production company Puma Production.

Filmography (selection)

1968 Sitta wa Thaniat 'Ashar; 18 min. 1970 Forêt; 17 min. 1971 Al-Boraq (Shining); 27 min. 1999 Histoire d'une rose; 85 min. 2005 Ailes brisées; 90 min.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2017