![Oumaima Barid at an event for Animalia (2023)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDdlOTA4ODEtOGFmYS00ZTlhLTg2NmMtYzFhOTZmMWE4YTNkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUzMTg2ODkz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,1,140,207_.jpg)
![Oumaima Barid at an event for Animalia (2023)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDdlOTA4ODEtOGFmYS00ZTlhLTg2NmMtYzFhOTZmMWE4YTNkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUzMTg2ODkz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,1,140,207_.jpg)
Oumaima Barid in Animalia Photo: Wrong Films & Srab Films
A big hit on the festival circuit and now in cinemas in the US, Sofia Alaoui’s Animalia is an extraordinary feature début which promises a still more extraordinary future career. I was delighted when the director agreed to discuss it, and although we had no translator to assist, she had plenty to say.
The film follows a young, pregnant woman who has married into a wealthy family. When she’s alone in their remote mansion, a strange incident occurs, with military units rushing to surround the nearby lake. It’s just the start of an extraterrestrial engagement that will plunge her world into chaos, but the journey that follows has unexpected consequences, leading her to reevaluate her life and the society she’s part of.
Animalia Photo: Wrong Films & Srab Films
I fell in love with the film, I tell Sofia,...
A big hit on the festival circuit and now in cinemas in the US, Sofia Alaoui’s Animalia is an extraordinary feature début which promises a still more extraordinary future career. I was delighted when the director agreed to discuss it, and although we had no translator to assist, she had plenty to say.
The film follows a young, pregnant woman who has married into a wealthy family. When she’s alone in their remote mansion, a strange incident occurs, with military units rushing to surround the nearby lake. It’s just the start of an extraterrestrial engagement that will plunge her world into chaos, but the journey that follows has unexpected consequences, leading her to reevaluate her life and the society she’s part of.
Animalia Photo: Wrong Films & Srab Films
I fell in love with the film, I tell Sofia,...
- 6/30/2024
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
![Stanley Kubrick in A Clockwork Orange (1971)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOGYzYjljYmYtODE0Yy00NzlmLThkNmQtZGQzMjM4MGI1NTUxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDc2NTEzMw@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR11,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Stanley Kubrick in A Clockwork Orange (1971)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOGYzYjljYmYtODE0Yy00NzlmLThkNmQtZGQzMjM4MGI1NTUxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDc2NTEzMw@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR11,0,140,207_.jpg)
A powerful statement of intent from first time feature director Sofia Alaoui, and deserving winner of the New Visions award at Sundance, Animalia opens with a series of gorgeously framed symmetrical shots, exterior and then interior, which recall the work of Stanley Kubrick. They’re beautiful partly because of the house they depict, an elegant lakeside Moroccan mansion, but as we’ll soon see, they provide only a taster of what Alaoui can do. They depict a life not only wealthy but perfectly ordered, every detail where it is intended to be. Only Itto (Oumaima Barid) is out of place, attracting scowls from her mother in law when she is caught in the kitchen, chatting to the servants, getting raw meat on the sleeves of her orange silk robe.
“She wanted you to marry a rich girl, not a hick, a nobody’s daughter,” she later laments to her husband,...
“She wanted you to marry a rich girl, not a hick, a nobody’s daughter,” she later laments to her husband,...
- 6/14/2024
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZmVlYjJkMDAtNDFlOS00Yjk1LWEzNDYtOWE2ZGI3NzdkNTEyXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_QL75_UY140_CR76,0,140,140_.jpg)
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZmVlYjJkMDAtNDFlOS00Yjk1LWEzNDYtOWE2ZGI3NzdkNTEyXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_QL75_UY140_CR76,0,140,140_.jpg)
"Don't let fear stop you." Dark Star Pictures has revealed the official US trailer for an impressive indie sci-fi mystery thriller titled Animalia, a French-Moroccan production about a pregnant woman in Morocco. This initially premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival last year and it also played at plenty of other major festivals throughout 2023, including Vancouver and London. The film won a Sundance New Vision award and brings "the arrival of a new, freshly original cinematic voice" in French-Moroccan director Sofia Alaoui. As she nears the end of her pregnancy, Itto and her in-laws find their lives changed by a supernatural event. A story about a woman who discoverers emancipation when aliens arrive in Morocco. That's the big pitch, though there's also an intriguing psychological thriller angle to this story as well. Starring Oumaïma Barid as Itto, Mehdi Dehbi, Fouad Oughaou, and Souad Khouyi. It's arriving on VOD to watch next...
- 6/14/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2FmODNmMGItMGIwNC00MzM1LWJlYzEtZDIzMTdjN2ViYmRjXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,29,500,281_.jpg)
Dubai-based sales company Mad World has taken global rights to feminist drama “The Wound,” which marks the directorial debut of Morocco’s Seloua El Gouni, who has experience as a production manager on Hollywood titles such as “A Hologram for the King” and “Men in Black: International.”
“The Wound” (“La Plaie”) stars rising Arab talent Oumaïma Barid, who gained global notice in Sofia Alaoui’s 2023 Sundance title “Animalia.” Barid plays a young woman named Leila who is trying to pursue her passions and ambitions while contending with Morocco’s societal constraints and becomes pregnant in an extramarital love affair.
The promising drama’s Moroccan A-list cast also comprises rising star Brice Bexter; Amal Ayouch (“Eye on Juliet”); Mansour Badri (“Ghosts of Beirut”); Soraya Azzabi (“Billie’s Magic World”); Abdelhak Saleh (“Hounds”); and Sami Fekkak (“Testament: Story of Moses”).
“The Wound” is being produced by El Gouni and Taha Benghalem through their Marrakech-based company Pink Sheep Productions,...
“The Wound” (“La Plaie”) stars rising Arab talent Oumaïma Barid, who gained global notice in Sofia Alaoui’s 2023 Sundance title “Animalia.” Barid plays a young woman named Leila who is trying to pursue her passions and ambitions while contending with Morocco’s societal constraints and becomes pregnant in an extramarital love affair.
The promising drama’s Moroccan A-list cast also comprises rising star Brice Bexter; Amal Ayouch (“Eye on Juliet”); Mansour Badri (“Ghosts of Beirut”); Soraya Azzabi (“Billie’s Magic World”); Abdelhak Saleh (“Hounds”); and Sami Fekkak (“Testament: Story of Moses”).
“The Wound” is being produced by El Gouni and Taha Benghalem through their Marrakech-based company Pink Sheep Productions,...
- 6/14/2024
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTRkMzRiNDUtYmZhYS00OWJjLWI5OGYtZjZiZGE0YmViMThlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
Film Clinic is set to dominate the lineup of the highly anticipated third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival — which is scheduled to run from Nov 30, 2023 – Sat, Dec 9, 2023 — with the prolific production and distribution shingle boasting four of its titles in the festival. Coming in first in Arab Spectacular section titles Hajjan and Four Daughters. In Competition — Backstage and showcasing in the Festival Favourites section — Animalia.
Hajjan
Abu Bakr Shawky's latest Hajjan, produced by the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) & Film Clinic. It had its World Premiere in the Toronto International Film Festival.– It is also produced by Mohamed Hefzy and Majed Zuhair Samman, co-produced by The
Imaginarium Films' Rula Nasser, and distributed by Film Clinic Indie Distribution in the Arab world while Film Constellation has the
worldwide rights. It revolves around brothers Matar and Ghanim, who live in the endless desert of Saudi Arabia.
Hajjan
Abu Bakr Shawky's latest Hajjan, produced by the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) & Film Clinic. It had its World Premiere in the Toronto International Film Festival.– It is also produced by Mohamed Hefzy and Majed Zuhair Samman, co-produced by The
Imaginarium Films' Rula Nasser, and distributed by Film Clinic Indie Distribution in the Arab world while Film Constellation has the
worldwide rights. It revolves around brothers Matar and Ghanim, who live in the endless desert of Saudi Arabia.
- 11/12/2023
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2VhNjAxOWEtODU3My00ZjlhLWFkYzMtYjEwOTQ4ZmZkYWZhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,140_.jpg)
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2VhNjAxOWEtODU3My00ZjlhLWFkYzMtYjEwOTQ4ZmZkYWZhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,140_.jpg)
For writer-director Sofia Alaoui, winning the Short Film Grand Jury Prize for Qu’importe si les bêtes meurent (So What If the Goats Die) at the Sundance Film Festival and the Best Short Film at the César Awards three years ago opened literal doors. Those wins raised Alaoui’s international profile and gave her the opportunity to get her first, feature-length script, Animalia, a science-fiction drama set in contemporary Morocco, into production. By turns esoteric, enigmatic, and hermetic, Animalia marks the arrival of a new, freshly original cinematic voice, albeit an atypical, idiosyncratic, unorthodox one. When we first meet Animalia’s central character, Itto (Oumaima Barid), a heavily pregnant woman in her late 20s, she’s breaking the inflexible, unspoken rules of her adopted home and the wealthy family...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/7/2023
- Screen Anarchy
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMGVjN2QxYTMtZGVmNS00ZDM5LWIxNTYtMzE1Nzk2NDI5YzE5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,2,500,281_.jpg)
Animalia Review — Animalia (2023) Film Review from the 46th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Sofia Alaoui and starring Oumaïma Barid, Mehdi Dehbi, Souad Khouyi and Fouad Oughaou. Filmmaker Sofia Alaoui’s new film, Animalia, is a work of great complexity but there’s a lack of depth to the film’s ambiguous [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: Animalia: Sofia Alaoui’s Film is Compelling but its Mysterious Plot Needs More of a Resolve [Sundance 2023]...
Continue reading: Film Review: Animalia: Sofia Alaoui’s Film is Compelling but its Mysterious Plot Needs More of a Resolve [Sundance 2023]...
- 1/31/2023
- by Thomas Duffy
- Film-Book
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDNmYzUzYzAtMmIyZS00NzVmLWI4MmEtMmZjNzRiMmY1ZjJlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,1,500,281_.jpg)
Born to a French mother, a Moroccan father and raised for some years in China, filmmaker Sofia Alaoui grants that her upbringing had a more international expanse than most. The same could be said for her spiritual education, which pulled from Buddhist, Christian, Muslim and Taoist traditions, giving the “Animalia” director a considerable leg-up on the comparative religion front.
But for all her varied influences, once Alaoui came-of-age and into adulthood she shared a familiar sense of a yearning, feeling no less stifled than those raised in more, shall we say, provincial circumstances.
“We’re all trapped by our own dogmas,” the filmmaker tells Variety. “And I didn’t want to stay locked in a set system. Be they religious or social, those values guide our existences as men and women. And I think the most beautiful path is to break free, to separate yourself order to clear your own way.
But for all her varied influences, once Alaoui came-of-age and into adulthood she shared a familiar sense of a yearning, feeling no less stifled than those raised in more, shall we say, provincial circumstances.
“We’re all trapped by our own dogmas,” the filmmaker tells Variety. “And I didn’t want to stay locked in a set system. Be they religious or social, those values guide our existences as men and women. And I think the most beautiful path is to break free, to separate yourself order to clear your own way.
- 1/26/2023
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTM0MWM2Y2EtMmFjZS00YzE1LWJlNmYtNjAyMjgwNzNmMWMxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
A careful camera takes note of the placid symmetries of a gated house in a desert location. A fountain flows in the courtyard. A chandelier hangs in the hallway. Rococo chairs share plush rooms with Middle Eastern mosaics under elaborate wooden ceilings — a clash of aesthetic influences that signify wealth even above geography or culture. In the kitchen, Itto (an excellent Oumaïma Barid) — beautiful, young, heavily pregnant — chats cheerfully with the staff, relaxed and easy. Until, that is, her mother-in-law enters and a frosty hush settles. Director Sofia Alaoui sets up “Animalia” as an intimate dissection of the foibles and hypocrisies of Morocco’s moneyed classes. But Amine Bouhafa’s fine score, all ominous cello and somber bass, suggests that something more profound and destabilizing than the class divide is lying in wait, just beyond the hazy horizon.
Alaoui’s award-winning short film “So What If the Goats Die,” which was also gorgeously,...
Alaoui’s award-winning short film “So What If the Goats Die,” which was also gorgeously,...
- 1/21/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmZhNWIwYjItYmE0ZC00M2I0LWE4NTUtZDcyYjJhYTNlZTQxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UY281_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
I am of the firm belief that we are not the only forms of life out there. I don't believe that aliens have been secretly guiding humanity or anything like that — that's a conspiratorial mindset that can get really bigoted, really fast. However, I believe it's selfish to believe that humans are the only life in our vast galaxy. As to what forms these extraterrestrial beings take, that's something I'm not equipped to answer definitively. Maybe they're the little grey aliens of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" fame, or maybe they are more humanoid. Perhaps they don't have a form at all, being invisible to the naked eye, but present nonetheless.
To "Animalia" director Sofia Alaoui, aliens can be more intertwined with humanity than we might think. The French-Moroccan filmmaker's directorial debut envisions alien invasions to be personal and abstract, truly something that can't be easily comprehended. Maybe they...
To "Animalia" director Sofia Alaoui, aliens can be more intertwined with humanity than we might think. The French-Moroccan filmmaker's directorial debut envisions alien invasions to be personal and abstract, truly something that can't be easily comprehended. Maybe they...
- 1/20/2023
- by Erin Brady
- Slash Film
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMmYzZGJmN2ItNWIwNi00ZTA5LWIxZTUtOGEyZmNlNmM5MjQwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,140_.jpg)
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMmYzZGJmN2ItNWIwNi00ZTA5LWIxZTUtOGEyZmNlNmM5MjQwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,140_.jpg)
In her promising debut feature, Animalia, Moroccan writer-director Sofia Alaoui doesn’t turn the global catastrophe scenario on its head as much as she flips it sideways.
The film, which makes its world premiere in Sundance, starts off on familiar enough ground, following a very pregnant young woman, Itto (photogenic newcomer Oumaïma Barid), as she’s stranded from her new husband, Amine (Mehdi Dehbi), while a mysterious supernatural catastrophe occurs right outside their country estate.
But if Animalia begins like small-scale Roland Emmerich, it ends up more like Terrence Malick, with Alaoui eschewing your typical action-packed finale and taking things in much more of a mystical direction. This, along with her keen commentary on religion, social class and the place of women in contemporary Morocco, could give the film a boost in a marketplace already crowded with lots of doomsday content.
An extension of the director’s 2020 short, So What If the Goats Die,...
The film, which makes its world premiere in Sundance, starts off on familiar enough ground, following a very pregnant young woman, Itto (photogenic newcomer Oumaïma Barid), as she’s stranded from her new husband, Amine (Mehdi Dehbi), while a mysterious supernatural catastrophe occurs right outside their country estate.
But if Animalia begins like small-scale Roland Emmerich, it ends up more like Terrence Malick, with Alaoui eschewing your typical action-packed finale and taking things in much more of a mystical direction. This, along with her keen commentary on religion, social class and the place of women in contemporary Morocco, could give the film a boost in a marketplace already crowded with lots of doomsday content.
An extension of the director’s 2020 short, So What If the Goats Die,...
- 1/20/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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