The Mother of All Lies
A Moroccan woman’s search for truth tangles with a web of lies in her family history. As a daughter and filmmaker, she fuses personal and national history as she reflects on the 1981 Bread Riots, drawing out connections to modern Morocco.
Awards
Athens Int’l FF (2023) – Winner: Golden Athena: Best Documentary
Beirut Int’l Women FF (2024) – Nominated: Golden Tanit of Beirut: Best International Feature Documentary
Bergen Int’l FF (2023) – Winner: Documentaire Extraordinaire
Cannes Film Festival (2023) – Winner: Golden Eye, Un Certain Regard: Best Director
Cleveland Int’l FF (2024) – Nominated: Ad Hoc Docs Competition
DOC NYC (2023) – Winner: Cinematography Award Short List: Features
Dokufest Int’l Doc and Short FF (2023) – Nominated: International Dox Award
Durban Int’l FF (2023) – Winner: Best Documentary Feature
Film Independent Spirit Awards (2024) – Nominated: Independent Spirit Award: Best Documentary
International Cinephile Society Awards (2024) – Winner: ICS Award: Best Documentary
International Documentary Association (2024) – Nominated: IDA Award: Best Writing, Best Feature Documentary
International Documentary Association (2024) – Winner: IDA Award: Best Director
Marrakech Int’l FF (2023) – Nominated: Golden Star: Best Feature Film
Montpellier Mediterranean FF (2023) – Nominated: Panorama Award: Longs Mรฉtrages
Palm Springs Int’l FF (2024) – Nominated: Best Documentary; FIPRESCI Prize: Best Foreign Language Film
PGA Awards (2024) – Nominated: Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures
Sydney FF (2023) – Winner: Sydney Film Prize: Best Film
The Hague Movies that Matter Festival (2024) – Winner: Grand Jury Documentary Award: Best Documentary
Valladolid Int’l FF (2023) – Winner: Audience Award: Tiempo de Historia
Screenings โ CT
Screenings โ JHB
In this remarkable fusing of the documentary and memoir form, young Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir uses a miniature reproduction of the Casablanca neighbourhood she grew up in to reconstruct her memories of living under the iron rule of a grandmother so religiously devout that photographs were prohibited because they are haram. Inventively blending shots of the puppet stage with live footage, the film does a terrific job of evoking the viscerality of adolescence, despite the slight crudeness of the puppets and their worldโperhaps even because of it. El Moudir’s luminous film harnesses the documentary form as a powerful medium to tell our personal stories. But Mother of All Lies is about more than a fundamentalist grandmother and the curious relationship between religious belief and the power of images. It is also about how fundamentalismโin all its formsโconstrains our true selves and potentials.
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