Freedom

A film like a slow yet very intriguing landscape painting. Virtually silent, the film is set in a bare and desert area of the Moroccan coast. That is at least where the beautiful pictures were shot; in the sparse narrative no specific country is involved.The film opens with action, but that is almost casual and filmed from a distance, as if the camera thought the light on the beach was more important than the gunfight at sea. A police boat shoots at another one. Apparently this boat is involved in something illegal (drug or people smuggling; the film leaves this aside, like many other things). Later, two men wash up on the beach. They survived the police attack, but they are far from saved because they are delivered up to bare sand and the blistering sun. The whole film is set literally on the waterfront: the boundary between land and sea that is here, more than ever, a frontier between two hostile elements. The sea is just as unassailable as the desert, they only have any chance on the floodline. A local girl (Fatima Ennaflaoui) appears on the stage, but her relationship to the men remains indistinct and mysterious for a long time. Without words, a confusing trial of strength emerges between the men. Water, food and shelter are initially more important than jealousy. In the end the men separate and leave the girl behind, who can only follow one of them. (GjZ)