Moroccan director Hassan Benjelloun
(ANSAmed) – TETOUAN (MOROCCO) – “Religious extremism?In Morocco we are too tied to our traditions to be truly threatened.But we must be vigilant, with culture, and also film.”These are the words of one of Morocco’s most celebrated filmmakers, Hassan Benjelloun, the author of ‘Forgotten by History’, presented at the MedFilm festival in Rome in 2010. We met shortly after the opening of the Tetouan Mediterranean Film Festival. That ceremony was accompanied by protests. As participants entered the Avenida cinema a group of unemployed youths demanded that the money go somewhere else other than to a film festival.
“Those guys don’t understand that it is vital to finance a festival like this.Today they shout insults and profanities, but there was a time when they wouldn’t have done so. They protested, but not so aggressively.This is one of the results of the opening of Moroccan politics – says Benjelloun – Here there was the Arab spring, but there have also been reforms.Now here the king has less power, and the role of prime minister was strengthened. There were important changes.” Benjelloun stressed how Morocco, even in times of international crisis, is spending about six million euros to promote culture, and cinema in particular.”Some years ago, Morocco allocated 10 million euros per year to make adverts to tell foreigners that this country there, and to visit it.Today those resources are no longer allocated to adverts.” Benjelloun, like many European and North African directors, complains about the problems of international distribution, dominated by the Anglo-Americans.”To see one of my films distributed in Italy?It would be a dream. “(ANSAmed).
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