Baya Al Maut

I had the pleasure of watching this film at TIff. I had no idea what it was about when going in, therefore I had no expectations. It was my first film from the director, so I did not know what to expect. Visually, this film was beautiful. A lot of the times, director Faouzi Bensaidi used just images to capture a scene's moment with no dialogue needed. It was powerful, simple, and complete. In fact, most of the scenes between the Malik and his girlfriend had little or no words. The power of emotion was captured simply by looks and glances. This is what made the story so much more powerful and leaves us stunned at the end. The story itself was a well told story about 3 boys who are trying to survive in Morocco. It was very well acted and the film gave us a glimpse of what life in Morocco is really like. It tied in local customs to the story and touched lightly upon religion. What I liked was how they had 3 clear views on religion in this movie, but it was presented in such a way, that you did not feel that this movie was only about that. Very much a film noir with a powerful story, beautiful visuals, amazing editing, this is a film that should be watched.