Skip to content
29 Jan – 8 Feb 2026

The silence

Mustapha Darkaoui | Morocco | 1991 | 40' | IFFR 1992

A film and theatre production group is working on a play based on interviews with women working in nightclubs. During the preparations the group members are actually thinking aboutsomething else. One of them looks in a cutting room at slides taken during the making of a documentary in Iraq, more than ten years previously. Within the group a plan emerges to return to Iraq. They want to revisit the people they met then and ask them about their experiences during the Gulf War. They want to visit the famous old cultural places and see what the war has left intact.Work continues on the theatre project, but they cannot concentrate. They have the idea of acting the filming in Iraq like a play. This play could in turn provide scenes for the film. Other things are redoubled: the film opens with a dream in which a storm suddenly rises in a room where an actress is preparing for her role. In the end, telephone conversations with a producer in Paris have to decide whether the project goes ahead or not.

Also in this combined programme

View the entire programme

Film details

Country of production
Morocco
Year
1991
Festival edition
IFFR 1992
Length
40"
Medium/Format
35mm

You may also like this