Farida Benlyazid’s “A Door to the Sky” (1988, Morocco, 107 min.) rests as one of the pillars of LE18’s proposition at documenta 15, inspiring the title of its public programme and relief centre at WH22. The film itself is crucial to Moroccan film history, being the first fiction feature by a woman. It tells the story of Nadia, an intellectual punk who comes back in a rush from France to her native Morocco to bid farewell to her dying father. Her father’s eventual death leads to spiritual visions and a rediscovery of a Moroccan identity she long tried to erase. Meanwhile, her modernist brother ironically uses Islamic laws to sell their family home. Nadia confronts him, occupies the house and turns it into a Zaouia (a spiritual refuge) inviting women rejected by society to live in it…

Farida Benlyazid (MA) is a scriptwriter,  producer, production manager, novelist,  and director. She began working in the field  of cinema and cinematic production in the seventies. Benlyazid’s films and scripts include some of Morocco’s most important fiction works from the country’s second generation of filmmakers including Jilali Ferhati’s “Poupées de Roseaux” (1981) and her own “A Door to the Sky” (1989). In addition to her fiction works, Farida has directed and produced documentaries like “Casa Nayda” (2007).  

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Nadir Bouhmouch is a filmmaker, photographer and writer based in Marrakech. His practice revolves around agriculture, ecology and popular rural art forms with works which include short and medium-length films as well as essays and short stories. Nadir’s first feature film, “Amussu,” has shown at various festivals. In addition, he is also co-founder of AWAL (“the word”), an art and research project dedicated to ancestral oral arts in the Atlas mountains.

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In Moroccan Darija and English

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