Majid (film)

Majid is a 2010 Moroccan film written and directed by Nassim Abassi, starring Brahim Al Bakali and Lotfi Sabir. The film premiered at the Leighton House Museum with the Mena Film Festival.

Plot
The main character, a ten-year-old Moroccan orphan named Majid, has recently moved to Mohammedia with his brother. His brother is an appealing and careless drunk. Majid makes very little money on the streets selling books, and lives a very simple and disheartening life. From the start of the film, Majid is having reoccurring nightmares and soon realizes that he cannot remember his deceased parents' (who had died in a fire) faces anymore. He also realizes that he has no photographs of his parents, except for a ruined family photograph, in which his parents' heads are burnt away from the photo due to the fire. He meets a new street-smart friend named Larbi, who helps him on the journey to find a photograph of his parents. This search leads them to the big city of Casablanca where they come face to face with many dangerous events and become part of a moving adventure.

Cast

 * Brahim Al Bakali as Majid
 * Lotfi Sabir as Larbi
 * Wassime Zidi
 * Moulay Abdellah Lamrani
 * Abderrahim Tounsi
 * Mohammed Ben Brahim
 * Aïcha Mahmah
 * Hicham Ibrahimi
 * Mostafa El Houari
 * Aziz Hattab
 * Youssef Karte
 * Brahim Khai
 * Mohamed Harraga
 * Yassine Sekkal
 * Fayçal Azizi

Inspiration
Nassim Abassi was brought up in Morocco, and had many inspirations for the film Majid. Abassi had stated:

"I started writing MAJID fifteen years ago, during my studies at a film school in the UK and I only finished it three years later. I started looking for funding for it in the UK, thinking foolishly that I may get an English producer interested but I was advised to give up trying as English producers were not interested in a movie to be shot in Moroccan language in Morocco. I was told to try French producers instead but since I was living in the UK, I decided to postpone looking for funds for Majid and started writing English language screenplays set in London.

Concerning the story of MAJID, it's set in Mohammedia, my hometown. It's a coming of age story of a ten years old Moroccan orphan called Majid who works as a shoe shiner in the town's streets. Following recurrent nightmares, he discovers that he can't remember his parents' faces anymore and that there are no photographs of them apart from the charred remains of a family photo with his parents heads burnt away. With the help of his new friend Larbi, an eleven years old cigarettes seller, Majid decides to go on a quest to find a photograph of his dead parents. It's a journey that will take them to the big city of Casablanca where many dangers and adventures await them.

The inspiration behind this movie was diverse but one of the first ideas I had as I sat down to write the script was to tackle a problem that I faced myself and it concerns my own problem of loss of memory, especially concerning my childhood memory which has faded away almost completely."

Reception
The film was greatly received by many critics. Raphael Cormack had written in the Arab Review that the film is "both genuinely funny and genuinely moving". The film had also won numerous awards like in Morocco's National Film Festival, Rotterdam Arab Film Festival and many more.