He was born on April 1 in 1969 in Paris. After three years of studying drama arts he made many commercials and short films. His first feature film, Mektoub (1997), had record ticket sales (more than 350.000 sold tickets). Ali Zaoua, prince de la rue (Ali Zoua: Prince of the Streets, 2000) was his second film. He also made Une minute de soleil en moins (A Minute of Sun Less, 2003).
Ali, Kwika, Omar and Boubker are street children. In spite of their hard lives they are faithful friends. Ali dies as a victim of a street gang war. His friends decide to organize him the funeral that he deserves.
Festivals, awards: Toronto, Tokyo, Sundance, Berlin, Mar del Plata, Amiens (audience’s award), Stockholm (grand prix), Fespaco (grand prix)
Director’s statement:
The main hero of this film dies very soon and I did not want to characterize him physically but rather I wished to t...
Godine 1994. u četvrti Sidi Moumen na periferiji Casablance, u trošnim barakama i iznimnom siromaštvu odrastaju dječak Yachine, njegov agresivni stariji brat Hamid te Yachineovi prijatelji Nabil, sin lokalne prostitutke i pjevačice Tamou, Fouad koji uživa u marihuani i Khalil, čiji se otac uskoro ženi. Dečki su sitni kriminalci među kojima Hamid novac zarađuje prenoseći drogu, a nakon što na vjenčanju Khalilova oca svi sudjeluju u krađi alkohola, Hamid će pred ostalima silov...
