اليـام اليـام (Oh the Days!). 1978. Morocco. Written and directed by Ahmed El Maanouni. With the inhabitants of Toualàa (Oulad Ziane) in the region of Casablanca. DCP restored by Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with Ahmed El Maanouni. Restoration funded by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project. In Arabic, French; English subtitles. 90 min.
After his father’s death, a young man’s dreams of a better future in France are challenged by his mother’s wish that he become the family’s breadwinner in their small Moroccan countryside village. In the words of director Ahmed El Maanouni, “I did not look for spectacular beauty, but made an effort to let the imagery of the rural world speak through abstraction and silence…. When I watch [Oh the Days!] again, I am still comfortable with my aesthetic choices and my intuitions, but I cannot avoid noticing how, from beginning to end—from the opening shots with the blood shed by the camels to the crowd of peasants appearing from behind the hills—it all seemed to presage the current tragedy experienced by the thousands whose broken dreams lie at the bottom of the Mediterranean.”