Moroccan film ‘Aicha' to world premiere at Krakow Film Festival
The film is distributed across Arab-speaking territories by MAD Distribution.
Aicha, a short film by Moroccan filmmaker Sanaa El Alaoui, is set to have its world premiere in the Short Film Competition at the Krakow Film Festival, one of Europe's longest-running celebrations of cinematic art. Now in its 65th edition, the festival, which has been held annually since 1961, will run this year from May 25 to June 1.
The film tells the story of a once emotionally distant mother who joins a mystical ceremony in an effort to confront her grief and reconnect with the memory of her 17-year-old daughter, whose life was cut short by tragedy. The narrative explores themes of loss, healing, and transformation through a surreal and spiritual lens.
Speaking on her featurette, Alaoui stated: 'Watching AICHA breaks the illusion of time's linearity, allowing you to see life and death unfold simultaneously', further adding that, 'Trauma shatters our perception of time and space; it reshapes our identities. It offers us either the chance to let go or to be reborn, and that is the journey of the daughter and her mother.'
The cast features Hind Dafer, Manal Bennani, Mohamed Amine Kihal, Sanaa El Alaoui, Kenza Fridou, Soumia Belkaria and Mustapha Rachdi. El Alaoui wrote and directed the film, which was produced by Piotr Kaczorowski. The film's cinematography is by Oskar Jan Król, editing by Michał Buczek, and animation by Tomek Popakul and Kasumi Ozeki.
Aicha is distributed across Arabic-speaking regions by MAD Distribution, with international sales managed by MAD World.
El Alaoui, known for her thoughtful storytelling and visual sensibility, holds degrees from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest—where her thesis on the long take in cinema received the Best Thesis of the Year Award—and the University of Oxford, where she focused her research on the evolution of Moroccan cinema from its colonial roots to the modern era.
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