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De quelques événements sans signification

About Some Meaningless Events
Forum 2019
© Observatoire/Filmoteca de Catalunya/Basma
Around the port’s streets and popular bars of Casablanca, a group of filmmakers conduct discussions with people about their expectations of, and aspirations for, the emerging Moroccan national cinema. When a disgruntled worker kills his superior accidentally, their inquest shifts focus, and they begin to probe the context and motives of the killing. At the heart of De quelques événements sans signification is an interrogation on the role of cinema (and art) in society, documentary and the Real, and what constitutes an urgency for a national cinema that is being born. This unique filmic experience was conceived as an independent and collective effort of militant filmmakers, actors, musicians, poets and journalists at a time of heightened repression on freedom of expression in Morocco and was funded by the sale of paintings by several contemporary painters. The film was first screened in Paris in 1975 but was immediately taxed with censorship and forbidden from exhibition and export. It was forgotten until a negative print was found in the archives of the Filmoteca de Catalunya in 2016 and restored there. 45 years after its completion, the film will finally be released.
by Mostafa Derkaoui Morocco 1974 Arabic 76’ Colour

Crew

Written and Directed by Mostafa Derkaoui
Cinematography Mohamed Abdelkrim Derkaoui
Editing Mostafa Derkaoui
Music Jazz-Band "Nahorny"
Sound Stan Wiszniewski, Noureddine Gounejjar, Larbi Essakalli, Miloud Bourbouh, Menouar Samiri
Producer Mostafa Derkaoui
Digital Restoration Centre de Conservació i Restauració de la Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona
L’Observatoire, le Musée Collectif de Casablanca

World Sales

Léa Morin | Observatoire

Produced by

Basma Production

Photos

Mostafa Derkaoui

Born in Oujda, Morocco in 1944. He studied at the French film school Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques (IDHEC, now La Fémis) in Paris before studying at the Polish film school Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa i Teatralna in Łódź. De quelques événements sans signification was his first feature-length film.

Filmography

1964 Les quatre murs 1968 Amghar; 4 min. · Adoption; 4 min. 1969 Les gens du caveau; 20 min. · Les États généraux du Cinéma 1970 Un jour quelque part; 20 min. 1974 De quelques événements sans signification 1976 Les cendres du clos; 105 min., collective film 1982 Les beaux jours de Chahrazade; 97 min. 1984 Titre provisoire; 120 min. 1988 La femme rurale au Maroc 1992 Fiction première; 120 min. · Le silence; 18 min., episode of omnibus film La Guerre du golfe …. et après? 1993 Le doux murmure du vent après l’orage; 22 min. 1994 Je(u) au passé; 81 min. · Les sept portes de la nuit; 100 min. · La grande allégorie; 67 min. 2000 Les amours de haj Mokhtar Soldi; 130 min. 2003 Casablanca by Night; 100 min. 2004 Casablanca Daylight; 100 min.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019