The Iranian Film

Yassine El Idrissi is a great admirer of Iranian cinema. As part of his Master’s at the Film Academy in Amsterdam, he decided to make a film in Morocco following the rules of Iranian filmmaking. The production of this political satire about a village in danger of being without flags on a national holiday was not without its troubles. Bureaucratic hurdles, remote locations and working with an amateur cast did not make things easy for Yassine and his friends.
In line with the Iranian masters to whom he often refers (including Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf), El Idrissi’s ‘Iranian film’ perches on the knife edge between documentary and fiction. This film about making a film feels like a spontaneous, light-hearted home movie, but meanwhile, and in an inventive and humorous way, El Idrissi investigates the state of Moroccan cinema. How come Iran has such a flourishing film culture and Morocco doesn’t, despite more freedom?

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