Karim Aitouna

Where the Wind Comes From

Alyssa, a rebellious 19 year-old girl, and her friend Mehdi — a shy and introverted 23-year-old young man — who use their imagination to escape their unpromising reality. When they discover a contest in the south of Tunisia that may allow them to flee for real, they decide to undertake the road trip regardless of the obstacles in their way.

The Thousand and One Days of Hajj Edmond

A former communist leader and activist for Moroccan independence, Edmond Amran Elmaleh left behind a vast body of literary work that masterfully articulates personal and collective memory. This cinematic letter, addressed to Elmaleh by director Simone Bitton, weaves together excerpts from the writer’s texts, testimonies, and archival images, and the filmmaker’s own words to illustrate the memory of a captivating and erudite man haunted by the parallel tragedies of the departure of Jews from Morocco and the exodus of Palestinians uprooted from their land.

Broken Dreamland

They were children when they left, dreaming of a life without worry: freedom and wealth. But what awaited them was a nightmare. One of them began to change, leading him to commit a lethal knife attack in Turku, Finland. By following the lives of two of the attacker’s friends, the film delves into the experiences of an entire generation of young Moroccan men who feel like they do not belong anywhere. While their families push them to travel to Europe to find a better life, Europe casts them out.

Suspended Wives

While men in Morocco are allowed to marry again six months after they have been separated, for women to get divorced is an almost insurmountable bureaucratic undertaking. Ghita, Latifa and Saadia are attempting it nonetheless.

A Way Home

When filmmaker Karima Saïdi’s mother Aïcha develops Alzheimer’s at the end of her life, Karima decides to make a film portrait of her at her Brussels care home. Before oblivion descends for good. Aïcha is becoming increasingly confused, and Karima takes her on mental journey back into her past. The filmmaker uses Aïcha’s stories and a wide range of family archive material to create an impression of Aïcha’s life. We start with her youth in Morocco, are shown how her husband brought her from Tangiers to Belgium, and how she later went on to raise her children as a single mother.

Gevar's Land

A patch of garden on the outskirts of Reims, far, very far from his orchards in Syria. During four seasons, Gevar learns how to farm this new land that waits for no one.

Poisonous Roses

Set in the confines of an impoverished Cairo neighborhood, a community's everyday life is threatened by the ruthless rhythms of Tanneries, rotary driers crushing animal skin, hazards of poisonous waste water, Tahyea desperately clings to her brother, Saqr, whose only dream is to escape.

Women of the Weeping River

Two women in a remote Muslim community confront an escalating blood feud and reach deep into themselves in hopes to undo the feud stretching back generations.