Islamists won’t interfere with Moroccan cinema

“Marouki in Paris” is the latest cinematic offering from popular Moroccan comedy actor and director Said Naciri.  Despite some bad reviews at the Cairo Film Festival recently, the film has been hugely popular with cinema-goers in only its first week of release. Naciri says the criticism received at the famous Egyptian film festival was simply a refusal to admit that the Moroccan cinema industry has come a long way.  In an interview with Arabstoday, Naciri speaks about his new film, what he think of his critics and how the Moroccan government is making efforts to develop the country’s cinema industry. Arabstoday: Can you tell us a bit about your new movie "Marouki in Paris"? Said Naciri: First of all, the script mixes between drama and light comedy.  We also used some French actors like, Francis Lalyn, Jean Marrie Biggar and the superstar Jean Pierre Castadle, who’ve acted in more than 250 international movies.  Technically, I also used modern techniques in order to improve the image and sound on the film. "Marouki in Paris" seems to have captured audience’s admiration. I was surprised by the movie great success, which I didn’t really expect.  In its first week the film made more than 30,000 Dirham, which is good in our field. AT:  Why do you always insist on playing the lead role in all your movies?  Don’t you want to give other actors a chance to shine? SN: In every film that I have played the main role I was also the script writer, which means I was the best person to play the role as I understood the character fully.  But I haven’t played the main role for every film - “Banat Nas" (Good Girls) is a good example. AT: Your films are very popular but for some reason they don’t seem to win many awards at festivals.  Why is that? SN: All my movies are comedies and comedies in general don’t win many awards.  My participation in international festivals is only to garner publicity for my work and get as much exposure as I can. AT: Last year you entered you film “The Hook" in The Cairo cinema festival but it faced a lot of criticism.  How did you take it? SN: I wouldn’t say it was criticism; they were just settling scores with Egyptian actor Essam Karika, who played the terrorist role in the movie.  Some Egyptian critics were very bothered by the fact that I used an Egyptian actor to play a terrorist in a Moroccan film and said it was naïve of me to make that decision.  For me, I thought this was just a sort of discrimination faced by the Moroccan cinema industry.  They just could not bring themselves to praise my work because they don’t like seeing a Moroccan film do well locally in their country. AT: Many critics have accused you of trying to emulate American films.  Do you think that’s true? SN: On the whole, I think, comedy films worldwide are following this trend.  However I was the first to use action in "Al Bandya" and before it "Welad El Darb".  I always try to incorporate action in my movies by using technical sound effects. AT: You say that the film did very well.  But you must admit that Moroccan theater is facing a crisis.  What can be done about the problem? SN: You’re right.  I’m not happy about the quality of Moroccan theater nowadays. Despite the presence of great stars and directors, we still can't achieve significant development that has been achieved in cinema elsewhere. AT: Do you think the cinema industry will be affected by the fact that Morocco has a new Islamist government?   SN: Recently the communications department gave some support to the Moroccan cinema industry.  Although it was a small amount, it was still more than we got in previous years. Our cinema industry has enormous potential so I don’t think that Mustafa el Khalafy, the Communications Minister, will be against films just because of his beliefs.  Recently, we screened a movie at the Tangier Film Festival, and even though some parts of it were controversial and went against the ideology of his party, we didn’t hear anything.  I am sure that the new minister of communication knows how to separate his job from his religious beliefs.