Our Dark 70s
Spring Grant 2013 - Production Stage
Ali Essafi / Feature Documentary / Morocco, Qatar / 2014 / 75 min / Colour and B&W / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Based on a True Story, Violence
Synopsis
‘Our Dark 70s’ is an archival footage project that uncovers the artistic creativity of Morocco’s 70s. This is sustained by three victims’ accounts from this period’s repression known as the ‘Years of Lead’. Stories about activism, torture and resistance are told by two former political prisoners and the mother of a missing person. Through a collage technique, the film unearths the mood and creativity of an era that has long been censored.
Credits
- Director
- Ali Essafi
- Screenwriter
- Ali Essafi
- Producer
- Ali Essafi
About the Director
Born in Morocco in 1963, Ali Essafi studied psychology in France then entered the world of filmmaking. His works as a director include ‘Général, nous voilà’ (1997), ‘The Silence of the Root Fields’ (1998), ‘Ouarzazate Movie’ (2001) and ‘Shikhate's Blues’ (2005), which have won awards and were praised on the international circuit. In 2002, Essafi was back in Morocco, where he became involved in public television for three years as an art direction advisor. His last film, ‘Wanted!’, commissioned by the 10th Sharjah Biennial in 2011, was selected for MoMA’s Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema from the 1960s to Now series.