Burned Hearts
Film screening as part of the Arab Film Festival 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Writer's Guild of America Theater
135 S. Doheny Drive
Burned Hearts
Director: Ahmed El Maanouni
(Morocco, 2007, 84 minutes)
Amin, a young architect, returns from Paris to Fez to visit the dying uncle who raised him. In addition to provoking painful memories of his own childhood, his trip also seems to unsettle those he encounters, including the young woman who wishes to escape her restrictive family by fleeing to France, or his friend Aziz and his illicit relationship with an older, upper-class woman. El Maanouni frames his story with riveting color sequences, then stays with black and white throughout the main part of the narrative. This technique, along with an elliptical style of editing and flashback and a vibrant soundtrack, offers us a compelling picture of the complexity of life in Morocco today. Burned Hearts reflects on the contemporary experiences of migration, as well as inter-generational and inter-class relations. It is the third feature-length film by Ahmed El Maanouni, whose film Trances (1980), a documentary on the Moroccan musical group Nass el Ghiwane, was recently restored by Martin Scorsese for his World Cinema Foundation.
This screening is part of the Arab Film Festival. For details on the festival, please visit www.aff.org
Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies, Arab Film Festival, Pan-African Film Festival, Moroccan American Association of California
