The arrival of cinema during the French colonial empire
The story begins with the Lumière brothers, who in 1897 are said to have shot the first images of the Grand Socco (souk) and Petit Socco, which feature in the film Le Cavalier marocain. From then until the 1940s, most films produced in Tangier and Morocco in general were based on French colonial cinema. This cinema often tackled the same themes: conflicts between "tribes", the civilizing role of the French metropolis, but also the daily life of doctors and soldiers, etc., through documentaries as well as fiction. This type of film was developed as much for propaganda purposes as for entertainment. Production was most prolific in the Maghreb, before spreading to other French colonies in Africa and Asia.
Locally, films were first shown in cafe cellars, fairground stalls and theaters, before the first movie theaters appeared in the 1930s.
Democratizing cinema
Theaters included the Cervantes, the Alcazar, the Rif, the Paris... Big screens multiplied during this period, hosting spaghetti westerns and American films, as well as Arab, Egyptian, Lebanese and Bollywood productions, followed by Hong Kong kung fu films from the 1970s-1980s.
As early as 1944, the first production structures were created in Morocco with the Centre cinématographique marocain in Rabat, the equivalent of our CNC. But it was not until after the country's independence, in 1958, that the first Moroccan feature film was produced, directed by Mohamed Ousfour and entitled Le Fils Maudit (The Cursed Son), which tells the story of a young man who has become a thug through his parents' negligence. Little by little, the situation escalates, culminating in crime. In this fifty-minute film, Mohamed Ousfour wears many hats: screenwriter, director, producer and cinematographer.
The first Mediterranean film festival was held in Tangier in 1968. Since then, the film industry has played an important role in the country.
Nevertheless, with Casablanca gradually imposing its law on film distribution (copies are first shown in Casablanca before arriving in Tangier, sometimes in poor condition), Tangiers residents are losing interest in cinemas with their bad reputations, and some are forced to close. Even today, cinemas are sometimes regarded as uninviting. Massive film piracy is also an obstacle to theatrical release.
The Cinémathèque de Tanger, a landmark
If Tangier was a place of intense cultural ferment during the first half of the 20th century, the city has since clearly gone languid. But a group of artists is determined to rekindle the flame! On the initiative of Tangier artist Yto Barrada, Moroccan director and producer Latif Lahlou and French producer Cyriac Auriol, the institute was created in 2006. Since then, the Cinémathèque has striven to fulfill its mission of disseminating Moroccan film culture nationally and internationally through a collection of documentaries, artists' films and experimental films, as well as offering educational workshops, round tables and meetings with professionals. The Cinémathèque is first and foremost a place for cultural encounters and openness.
For some years now, Tangier has also been hosting the Mediterranean Short Film Festival, which is gradually breathing new life into the 7th art - proof of a real desire to get the region's cultural life moving.
International films
Despite the censorship sometimes imposed on theatrical releases for religious reasons, many foreign films have been shot in Morocco, mainly in the Ouarzazate studios, but also occasionally in Tangier itself. These include the James Bond series Killing is not Playing (1987), Ridley Scott's Gladiator (1999) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2006) starring Matt Damon. In a more nocturnal mood, Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers left Alive shows Eve, alias Tilda Swinton, waking up in her Tangier bedroom, filled with books. The film shows Tangier's streets at night, whose melancholy atmosphere is perfectly suited to this vampire story. In 2015, James Bond returns to Morocco in Spectre. Abdeslam Akaaboune's palace was converted into the Hotel L'Américain for the occasion, while numerous local hotels welcomed the film crew, including the Minzah, the Mövenpick and the Villa Joséphine, for just 10 minutes of filming in Tangier.
André Téchiné regularly returns to the city, where some of his major films are set: Loin (2001), and the same year Le Café de la plage, for which he wrote the screenplay for director Benoît Graffin.
Most recently, The Rhythm Section (2020), starring Blake Lively and Jude Law, is set in Tangier and recalls the Jason Bourne saga.
National production
On the national production front, a new generation of directors is exploring intimate and complex subjects, such as Franco-Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch, whose film Ali Zaoua, prince de la rue (2001) has won several awards. The film tells the story of street children who dream of a better life. The author's subjects, often dealing with sensitive issues in Moroccan society, earned him a certain amount of mistrust from the Moroccan authorities. In 2021, her feature film Haut et Fort was screened at the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, becoming the second Moroccan film (excluding documentaries) to be shortlisted for the Palme.
Other young directors such as the talented Narjiss Nejjar, director of the Rabat Cinematheque since 2018, with her film Les Yeux secs, released in May 2005 and followed by Wake up Morocco released in 2006, or Leila Marakchi, with her film Marock, have changed the trend and dared to talk about subjects that are still taboo in Moroccan society today: sexuality, prostitution, poverty and golden youth. Censorship, which used to be rampant, is becoming less and less systematic thanks to foreign co-productions, notably from France.
