Please note: This was screened in Nov 2022
Moroccan writer-director and renowned filmmaker Maryam Touzani’s stirring second feature maps a melancholy love triangle involving a tailor, his dying wife and his male apprentice.
Halim (Saleh Bakri) and Mina (Lubna Azabal), are a loving married couple who run a traditional caftan store in Salé, one of Morocco's oldest médinas. But between them they harbour a secret - Halim's bisexuality - which he has learned to keep quiet. Mina's illness and the arrival of a talented young apprentice complicate this delicate balance, as Mina becomes aware of how much her husband is moved by the young man’s presence.
Maryam Touzani’s gentle observation of her characters delivers a story that is exquisite in its sensuality and sadness, its hushed tones and intimate camerawork affording us the closest possible access to three characters who in turn are constantly studying the other.