Film Shapes

Here's a delicately turned out drama about love and repression in a Moroccan medina. Director and co-writer, Maryam Touzani keeps a steady pace, not slow, but nothing's going to waste here. Every scene, every glance, every sigh, every mandarin seems utterly crucial to the story.  For all its outward sobriety, this is quite a seditious film. It concerns a married couple trying to maintain the relevance of their caftan store in the face of 'modern' advances in technology, like....sewing machines. Halim is a traditional maalem (master), attempting to keep the caftan stitching art of his father alive. Mina is the face and brain of the business, it's her idea to bring in an apprentice for Halim. Youssef is a much younger, attractive bloke, whose inexperience is balanced by his eagerness.  The wrinkle in the tale is that Halim is (likely always has been) gay, and the secrecy is clearly weighing on him. He also, very obviously loves his wife, who is doing her best to hold ...