Razzia

The film sets five separate lives in Morocco side by side. A village teacher in the Atlas mountains loses his job when teaching in Arabic is made compulsory. In Casablanca a woman is harassed in the street over what she is wearing. A restaurant owner, a musician and a young girl each run into their own limits. The five do not know one another, but they meet different parts of the same thing. Nabil Ayouch's film takes the argument about individual freedom in the country as its direct subject: religion, language, dress, sexuality and who decides what. Ayouch had made films before whose release caused argument in Morocco. The title means a raid, but the film looks at the continuous pressure inside everyday life rather than at a single event. Maryam Touzani both acts in it and co-wrote the script with Ayouch; she became known as a director later.