ADAM (MOROCCO)
In this compassionate drama, a dour widow and her precocious daughter have their world shaken when a pregnant, homeless young woman shows up at their doorstep.
Set in contemporary Casablanca, Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani’s feature debut is the heart-tugging yet hopeful story of three generations of women supporting each other through joy and heartbreak. Samia (Nessrine Erradi) is pregnant and living on the city’s streets, a particularly precarious situation in a country in which unwed motherhood means being publicly shunned. Going door to door in search of work, Samia lands at the home of Abla (Loubna Azabal, PFF27’s Sofia), a widow whose difficult life and emotional trauma have lent her a world-weariness far beyond her years. Though Abla rebuffs Samia at first, Abla’s vivacious young daughter Warda (Daoua Belkhaouda) encourages her to open their doors to the expecting mother. They begin to work side-by-side making pasties in Abla’s in-house bakery, and the older woman’s tough shell starts dissolve. She and her daughter grow more attached to their warm-hearted new housemate, but Samia’s progressing pregnancy means that she’ll soon have to make a wrenching choice. Subverting notions of traditional domestic roles with delicacy and nuance, Adam is a moving, subtly radical celebration of female autonomy and solidarity.
CAST: LOUBNA AZABAL, NESSRINE ERRADI, DAOUA BELKHAOUDA, AZIZ HATTAB
In Competition: First Feature Award
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