Better known for his iconic musical documentary Trances (1981), celebrated Moroccan filmmaker El-Maanouni’s first feature is a searing portrait of an heir of a rural family torn between his domestic duties and his dreams of leaving for the city for a better, different future. Raw and uncompromising in its depiction of the lost Moroccan generation swept aside by the inexorable forces of modernity, and in its emphasis on the debilitating burden of masculinity, El Maanouni’s trailblazing documentary paved the way for the subsequent wave of realism that would shake up Arab cinema. Largely unseen and inaccessible for decades, The Film Foundation’s restoration has breathed new life into one of the early jewels of Arab non-fiction filmmaking.

Restored in 2015 by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project in collaboration with Ahmed El-Maanouni. Restoration carried out at Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory; 4k scan performed at Eclair laboratories.