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Cannes -- Rich Arab girl falls for rich Jewish guy just before high-school graduation. They sneak off to the beach in his BMW, disregard authority, club hop, sport the designer threads, party with their pretty posses. Another trendy Beverly Hills-set entertainment? Nope, switch that dial to Casablanca, circa late'90s in Americanese, Marock is Casablanca 90210.

Yet, in this Un Certain Regard entry, it's still the same old story, a fight for love, if not glory.

A smart, glossy teen entertainment with patches of Rebel Without a Cause, American Graffitti, The Breakfast Club, and even a dark stitch of Less Than Zero, this Moroccan film is a beguiling, utterly surprising neo '50s-style teen entertainment. Concocted with saucy flourish by Moroccan filmmaker Laila Marrakchi, Marock (affectionate slang for Morroco) is a cross-cultural romp centered on a beautiful spirited teen, Rita (Morjana Alaoui) who butts heads with religious/social convention and authority figures, which are aplenty in her fundamentalist environs.

A rambunctious ride during the frenzied days just before high-school graduation, Marock is a rebellious, if utterly conventional coming-of-age movie; its novelty, of course, is that it is set in a Third World country with a strong Islamic fundamentalist culture.

In this smartly styled narrative, we see a privileged, Westernized counter-culture where the youth derisively refer to the mullahs as "beardies" and where the wealthy kids go to high school abroad. That's Rita's world, and Marock bounces with the carefree spirit of rock-'n'-roll-high movies.

Intelligently woven with compelling subplots as Rita, her friends, family and "inappropriate" lover careen through the contradictions of their inner and outer worlds, Marock is a generic treat. Filmmaker Laila Marrakchi's perceptive scripting and directorial panache are layered with a keen appreciation for narrative convention: if the setting was different, we might think Marrakchi was helming a Lynda Obst-produced teenage romancer.

Strutting out with Morjana Alaoui's charismatic turn as the rebellious teenager, Marock is a heady and light entertainment, fleshed out with a talented and appealing cast of Moroccan teens.

American Graffitti-style, Marrakchi reverberates with smartly-selected sounds, most rebel-rebel edgy with David Bowie's Rock n Roll Suicide.

Marock

Lazennec

France 3 Cinema

Canal+, Center National de la Cinematographie

Producers: Stephanie Carreras, Adeline Lecallier

Screenwriter/director: Laila Marrakchi

Cinematographer Maxime Alexandre

Editor: Pascale Fenouillet

Sound mixer: Marc Doisne

Production designer: Jean-Marc Tran Tan Ba

Costume designer: Helene Busuttil

Music consultants: Charles-henri de Pierrefeu, Mathieu Dugelay

Cast:

Rita: Morjana Alaoui

Youri: Matthieu Boujenah

Mao: Assaad Bouab

Sofia: Fatym Layachi

Asmaa: Razika Simozrag

Driss: Rachie Benassain

Omar: Khalid Maadour

No MPAA Rating

Running time – 100 minutes...

PARIS -- Korean director Hong Sang-soo's A Tale of the Cinema will complete the lineup of films In Competition at the Festival de Cannes, organizers said Tuesday. Hong brought his film Woman Is the Future of Man to the Croisette last year. Also, two more films have been added to the Un Certain Regard sidebar. Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani, from Japan's Aoyama Shinji, and Marock, a France/Morocco co-production from Laila Marrakchi, complete the lineup. Marock will compete for the Camera d'Or. Organizers also announced a special screening of the documentary Darshan -- l'Etreinte, from Netherlands-born Jan Kounen (Blueberry). Selected extracts from Jean-Luc Godard's "Histoire(s) du Cinema" will be presented by the official selection and Critics' Week, and Pele Eterno (Pele Forever), a documentary by Anibal Massaini Neto, will be screened under the Cinema de la Plage (Beach Cinema) banner.