Adam

Beautiful movie. Great acting, great photography, great ending.

Instead of the mundane, predictable and obvious plot lines, enter the world of nuance, beauty and subtlety. Those who appreciate the delicacy of Arabian cinema understand that as the viewer, you participate within your own experience...unlike the dull, mundane and predictable, force-fed Disneyesque works of popular Western dime-a-dozen films. As a person who has been fortunate enough to walk the streets of this film and live within it's world, I warmly embraced the opportunity to travel back to this culture in the time of Covid. Embrace an opportunity to use your OWN imagination...resist being a lazy viewer who needs an obvious conclusion. Our world is not that narrow!

Frankly growing a little tired of this filmmaking style seemingly all low-budget drama productions around the world have adopted. Same flat, digital look; same aspect ratio; same shot - reverse shot methods of shooting; same handheld camerawork; same 'loose' plot structure. What helps set this apart from the homogeny, besides the great subject matter, are two genuinely fantastic leads who devastate with graceful subtlety and naturalness, and a tone that manages the balancing act of misery and hopefulness. It's actually pretty great until it grinds to a screeching halt to have its "now we are sad and cry" portion that constitutes the final ~15 minutes. Not that you can't have your emotional swings, but it holds this for way too long and really made me yearn for those excellent quiet moments earlier on. There's a scene around the midpoint where these two women spill their beans and it's as tragic as it is genuinely empowering. Easily the best scene in the film and one whose approach it should've abided by.

This was beautiful. Taking place mainly in a domestic setting, the film focuses on the interactions unfolding between two women and their personal stories to tell of their struggles with the world outside, social stigma and having to make difficult decisions in this context. It seemed like it was made with a Moroccan, and maybe more generally Arab audience that understands the context, which I loved and gave lots of space for nuance. The open ending felt right and like it was a conscious decision by the director. If I had one complaint, it would be that the characters could've have more depth to their stories. At times they seemed a little flat. Otherwise I really enjoyed this film!