Coucou
Made in Qatar - Ajyal Youth Film Festival 2014
Meriem Mesraoua / Short Narrative / Qatar / 2013 / 10 min / Colour / DCP / In Arabic / English subtitles / World Premiere
Rated: Parental guidance is advised. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.
Synopsis
Eighty-year-old Samira spends her days in her large apartment, caring for her life-sized goldfish Coucou and warding off the outside world with pieces of aluminum foil, which she tapes to the walls and ceiling. But when an upstairs neighbour’s laundry lands on her balcony, Samira’s already fragile mental state shatters. With its eerie and disturbing atmosphere, ‘Coucou’ brilliantly captures the distorted reality of the senile mind.
About the Director
Meriem Mesraoua was born in Qatar and raised in France. She returned to Doha while in high school, and earned a BSc with Honours in Media Industries and Technologies from Northwestern University in Qatar. She explored various facets of the film industry through internships with Miramax and NYWIFT, and as a production trainee on Michael Winterbottom’s award-winning film ‘Trishna’ in 2011. Mesraoua directed her first short film ‘Coucou’ in 2014, in which she explores the power of the mind when subjected to loneliness.
Credits
- Director
- Meriem Mesraoua
- Screenwriter
- Meriem Mesraoua
- Producer
- Torath Production
- Editor
- Abdul Jabbar Maki
- Music
- Chris Adamescu
- Cinematographer
- Wielder Catapat
- Production Company
- Torath Production
- Cast
- Badriah Ahmed Nassan, Carole Sabbagha, Suliman Fadlelbari, Saoud Al Gosaibi, Rashad Eid, Coucou