Reviews

I had the chance to see the movie in Montreal where a big community of Moroccan Jews are living. The movie is very good. It brings light about the event of Jews exod from Morocco. There were Jews living in Morocco during centuries, and by the time of Europe's madness a lot of European Jews found in Morocco a safe place to live in. The movie answers the question of why and how the Moroccan Jews choose to quit Morocco. The story is captivating. The realistic style of the Director in this movie was enriched by a very beautiful scenes and a nice music. It is worth seeing. I think it is the best movie of Mohamed Ismail. The movie shows how we are all similar and can live together with our differences. As usual in the director/writer's style different stories are told in the same time, this gives like a live screen shot of this period of Morocco's history.

A real piece of art. El ayel, which means the kid in the arabic dilect used in northern Morocco, is a self-biography of the director/writer of the movie. The story take place in Tangier of the 5O's. No big events, an ordinary story that captures your emotions and make you think why the film is so important emotionally. Some aspects are universal like the discovery of one's own sexuality, others are of real actuality nowadays. It shows an image of the real Islam that is tolerant and respectful for diversity. The film's style is not very usual. The mixture of movie and documentary techniques makes it very special. Some events are not described in the film, they are deliberately hided. This make you feel angry why the film does not show them, but this gives an opportunity to your imagination to complete the missing peaces. Definitely a movie, that cannot be forgotten.