Burned Hearts

Burned Hearts constantly operates on a double level: that of the visible lightness of the first level of the story, so lively enriched by an admirable use of Moroccan folk music - and that of the deep graveness which runs through the narrative in half-tone. The architecture of the film carries this imprint which provides an internal vision, excludes all stereotypes and functions by counterpoint (light is also measured by the quality of the shade it produces).
Amin (Hicham Bahloul), a young architect living in Paris, returns suddenly to Fès, Morocco, where his uncle is dying. He has not spoken with the man who brought him up since he left his hometown Fès ten years earlier to study and settle in Paris.
The visits of the young architect to the hospital revive deep wounds of his painful childhood. His long-time friend, the craftsman Aziz, exhorts him not to surrender to the past resentment. The death of the uncle does not soothe the agonies of the young man who will have to find his answers within himself.
Burned Hearts is a remarkable return to fiction by director Ahmed El Maanouni (author of the cult film Oh the Days, 1978) whose powerful musical documentary Trances was chosen to be restored and presented at Cannes Classics last year by Martin Scorsese to launch his World Cinema Foundation. (LC)