اليـام اليـام (1978)
Directed by Ahmed El Maanouni
90 minutes
After his father’s death, a young man’s dreams of a better future in France are challenged by his mother’s wish that he become the family’s breadwinner in their small Moroccan countryside village. In the words of director Ahmed El Maanouni, “I did not look for spectacular beauty, but made an effort to let the imagery of the rural world speak through abstraction and silence…. When I watch [ Oh the Days!] again, I am still comfortable with my aesthetic choices and my intuitions, but I cannot avoid noticing how, from beginning to end—from the opening shots with the blood shed by the camels to the crowd of peasants appearing from behind the hills—it all seemed to presage the current tragedy experienced by the thousands whose broken dreams lie at the bottom of the Mediterranean.”