An interview with Abdelhai Laraki, the director of "Fez Summer '55", interviewer Nikolaj Nikitin
"Fez is the hometown of an 11-year-old Moroccan boy named Kamal, who can't even imagine that in a couple of months, his home country will gain independence from France. During the decisive months leading up to this, he decides to join the fight for freedom with his friends, which makes him a more aware and experienced young man.
The director of the film ""Fez Summer '55"" is Moroccan filmmaker Abdelhai Laraki, who typically employs a historical approach in his work. This is also the case with this film, as although it may seem to be about the past, it addresses modern day issues in Morocco as well. For some time, the director used to live in occupied Morocco and the stories that the script is based on are collected from his own family, as most of them were involved in the struggle for independence as well. He wanted to tell the story about this key period in his country through the eyes of an innocent boy - one who would have at the same time a tenderness and a fire and some attitude in him. When Laraki found the perfect actor for his film, he couldn't find him for 4 days after the casting. Luckily they managed to find him and decided to follow him around for the entire 7 weeks of shooting to prevent losing the unpredictable, but talented boy again.
All of the team and the actors in the film are completely new faces to represent the young people fighting for the future of their homes. This is the mosaic of people that make up the Morocco of tomorrow.
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