Jude Law Movie ‘The Order’ To Open Marrakech As Fest Unveils 2024 Line-Up

Justin Kurzel’s political thriller The Order starring Jude Law will open the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival in the presence of the director and producer Stuart Ford later this month.

The film is among seven films that will be showcased as gala screenings at the Moroccan film festival, which unveiled its line-up on Thursday.

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The galas also feature a trio of Best International Feature Film Oscar entries, Nabil Ayouch’s Everybody Loves Touda (Morocco), Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here (Brazil) and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany), all of which will screen in the presence of their directors.

The festival will screen 70 features from 32 countries across sections spanning the Official Competition, Gala Screenings, Special Screenings, the 11th Continent, the Moroccan Panorama, Cinema for Young Audiences & Families, and films shown as part of the Tributes program.

The 14 first and second films in competition include French and Moroccan director Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s Across the Sea, about a young Moroccan man attempting to make a life in Marseille, which premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week; Venice Horizons selection Happyend by Neo Sora, and Polish Oscar entry Under The Volcano by Damian Kocur.

A number of the contenders for Marrakech’s Étoile d’Or have been supported by the festival’s Atlas Workshops at the development or post-production stage such as Mo Harawe’s The Village Next To Paradise, which premiered in Cannes, and Hind Meddeb’s Sudan, Remember Us.

This year’s jury will be presided over by Luca Guadagnino, who has replaced previously announced Thomas Vinterberg who has cancelled his attendance for family reasons. Jury members include director Ali Abbasi and actors Patricia Arquette, Virginie Efira Jacob Elordi and Andrew Garfield.

There will Special Screenings for a number of film that have enjoyed buzz on the international festival circuit this year including Andrea Arnold’s Bird, Edward Berger’s Conclave, Mahdi Fleifel’s To A Land Unknown, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light and the UK’s Oscar entry On Becoming A Guinea Fowl by Rungano Nyoni.

International premieres in the section include Baya Kasmi’s tender comedy Mikado and The Vanishing, Karim Moussaoui’s, described as a fascinating story about the passing down of values from one generation to the next.

There will also be a Special Screening of a restored version of the 1988 feature The Camp at Thiaroye to mark the 80th anniversary of the mass killing of French West African troops by French forces on the night of November 30 to December 1, 1944, after the latter protested poor living conditions and lack of pay.

Three documentaries complete the selection: Petra Costa’s Apocalypse in the Tropics, Ayman El Amir’s The Brink of Dreams, and Myriam El Hajj’s Diaries from Lebanon.

The 11th Continent program comprises 13 innovative fiction and documentary films, including Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour and Kamal Aljafari’s A Fidai Film.

The Panorama of Moroccan Cinema presents five fiction and documentary films by Moroccan directors, of which three are world or international premieres: Simone Bitton’s The Thousand and One Days of Hajj Edmond, Abdeslam Kelai’s Nocturnal Sonata, and Jawad Rhalib’s Since I Was Born. Moroccan cinema is especially prominent this year, with a total of 12 films presented in the Festival’s various sections.

The program will also feature a selection films connected to the late Moroccan actress Naïma Elmcherqui, Canadian director David Cronenberg, and U.S. actor-director Sean Penn, who are being feted for their careers this year.

The festival runs from November 29 to December 7.

The 2024 line-up

OFFICIAL COMPETITION

ACROSS THE SEA
by Saïd Hamich Benlarbi / France, Morocco, Belgium

BOUND IN HEAVEN
by Huo Xin / China

THE COTTAGE
by ​​Silvina Schnicer / Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Chile

HAPPY HOLIDAYS
by Scandar Copti / Palestine, Germany, France, Italy, Qatar

HAPPYEND
by Neo Sora / Japan, USA

JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE
by Laura Piani / France

MA—CRY OF SILENCE
by The Maw Naing / Myanmar, Singapore, France, Norway, South Korea, Qatar

ONE OF THOSE DAYS WHEN HEMME DIES
by Murat Fıratoğlu / Türkey

PERFUMED WITH MINT
by Muhammed Hamdy / Egypt, Qatar, Tunisia, France

SILENT STORMS (LES TEMPÊTES)
by Dania Reymond-Boughenou / France, Belgium

SUDAN, REMEMBER US
by Hind Meddeb / France, Tunisia, Qatar – Documentary

UNDER THE VOLCANO
by Damian Kocur / Poland

THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE
by Mo Harawe / Austria, France, Germany, Somalia

THE WOLVES ALWAYS COME AT NIGHT
by Gabrielle Brady / Australia, Mongolia, Germany – Documentary


GALA
Opening film
THE ORDER
by Justin Kurzel / Canada

EVERYBODY LOVES TOUDA
by Nabil Ayouch / France, Morocco, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway

FOURTH WALL
by David Oelhoffen / France, Luxembourg, Belgium

I’M STILL HERE
by Walter Salles / Brazil, France

THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG
by Mohammad Rasoulof / Germany, France, Iran

THE SHROUDS
by David Cronenberg / France, Canada


THE TIES THAT BIND US
by Carine Tardieu / France, Belgium

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT
by Payal Kapadia / France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg

APOCALYPSE IN THE TROPICS
by Petra Costa / Brazil – Documentary

BIRD
by Andrea Arnold / UK
with Nykiya Adams, Franz Rogowski, Barry Keoghan, Jason Buda, Jasmine Jobson, Frankie Box

THE BRINK OF DREAMS
by Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir / Egypt, France, Denmark, Qatar, Saudi Arabia – Documentary

THE CAMP AT THIAROYE
by Ousmane Sembène, Thierno Faty Sow / Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia – 1988 – Restored version

CONCLAVE
by Edward Berger / USA, UK

DIARIES FROM LEBANON
by Myriam El Hajj / Lebanon, France, Qatar – Documentary

FANON
by Jean-Claude Barny / France, Luxembourg, Canada
with Alexandre Bouyer, Déborah François, Stanislas Merhar, Mehdi Senoussi, Olivier

KILL THE JOCKEY
by Luis Ortega / Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Denmark, USA

MIKADO
by Baya Kasmi / France
with Félix Moati, Ramzy Bedia, Vimala Pons

ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL
by Rungano Nyoni / Zambia, UK

STRANGER EYES
by Yeo Siew Hua / Singapore, Taiwan, France, USA

TO A LAND UNKNOWN
by Mahdi Fleifel / UK, Palestine, France, Greece, Netherlands, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia

THE VANISHING
by Karim Moussaoui / France, Germany, Tunisia

WHO DO I BELONG TO
by Meryam Joobeur / Tunisia, France, Canada

11th CONTINENT

A FIDAI FILM
by Kamal Aljafari / Palestine, Germany, Qatar, Brazil, France – Documentary

CABO NEGRO
by Abdellah Taïa / France, Maroc

THE DAMNED
by Roberto Minervini / Italy, USA, Belgium

GRAND TOUR
by Miguel Gomes / Portugal, Italy, France

GREEN LINE
by Sylvie Ballyot / France, Lebanon, Qatar – Documentary

HIGHER THAN ACIDIC CLOUDS
by Ali Asgari / Iran, Luxembourg – Documentary

NATIONALITY: IMMIGRANT
by Sidney Sokhona / France – 1975 – Restored version – Documentary

THE NIGHTS STILL SMELL OF GUNPOWDER
by Inadelso Cossa / Mozambique, France, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, Norway – Documentary

NO SLEEP TILL
by Alexandra Simpson / USA, Switzerland

RISING UP AT NIGHT
by Nelson Makengo / Democratic Republic of the Congo, Belgium, Germany, Burkina Faso, Qatar – Documentary

ROCK BOTTOM
by María Trénor / Spain, Poland
with Fermi Herrero, Laura Casana

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
by Matthew Rankin / Canada

WISHING ON A STAR
by Péter Kerekes / Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia – Documentary

MOROCCAN PANORAMA

(Y)OUR MOTHER
by Samira El Mouzghibati / Belgium, France – Documentary

THE BLUE LAKE
by Daoud Aoulad-Syad / Morocco, Salem Daballa, Ranya Chani

NOCTURNAL SONATA
by Abdeslam Kelaï / Morocco

SINCE I WAS BORN
by Jawad Rhalib / Morocco, Belgium

THE THOUSAND AND ONE DAYS OF HAJJ EDMOND
by Simone Bitton / Morocco, France – Documentary

CINEMA FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES & FAMILIES

DOUNIA, THE GREAT WHITE NORTH
by Marya Zarif, André Kadi / Canada

FLOW
by Gints Zilbalodis / Latvia, France, Belgium

L’BATAL
by Omar Lotfi / Morocco

SIROCCO AND THE KINGDOM OF THE WINDS
by Benoît Chieux / France, Belgium

SOMETIMES HAPPINESS, SOMETIMES SORROW
by Karan Johar / India

THREE ROBBERS AND A LION
by Rasmus A. Sivertsen / Norway

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