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Farida Benlyazid (born March 18, 1948, Tangier, Morocco) is a Moroccan scriptwriter, producer, production manager, novelist, and director. She began working in the field of cinema and cinematic production in the seventies and, according to Sandra Gayle Carter, continues to be one of the few Moroccan women in the field, as from the start of her career to 2003, she was the only female filmmaker in Morocco. Benlyazid's films, novel adaptations, documentaries and scripts have garnered much international recognition as she has become known for representing the struggles and obstacles faced by Moroccan women and incorporating her own personal experiences into her scripts and films.

Carter further states that the relationships between gender, society, and religion are articulated in her work, as women are presented as multi-dimensional and individualist, each defined by their own age, class, and personal and cultural upbringing.

Early Life and Education
Farida Benlyazid's interest in the world of cinema began at a young age, inspired by her mother's intrigue. In fact, her childhood as a whole played a role in the formation of her future films, as for example, Benlyazid grew up in Morocco speaking with her mother in Spanish and her father in Arabic, resulting in the formation of a multicultural identity which shaped her outlook on life and is is apparent in the majority of her films. Known for her complex constructions of the Moroccan woman in her films and scripts, Benlyazid's incorporates several autobiographical components into her scripts.

Longing for an education and the ability to travel, Benlyazid was restricted by her then-husband, who due to the Moroccan interpretation of Islamic law prior to the nineties, was the only one who could file for a divorce. After a long legal battle, she divorced in 1971 with two children to support. The same year, she left Morocco and moved to France, first attending the University of Paris VIII where she studied French Literature, and then the École Supérieure des Études Cinématographiques (ESEC) to study cinema from 1974-1976.

Career
In 1979 Benlyazid's film career began in France where she directed Identités de femmes, a short piece about women immigrants in France, and then continued two years later when she moved back to Morocco, which, at the time of the repressive Years of Lead in Morocco, had a weak film industry. She joined a group of motivated filmmakers and ultimately began her career as a scriptwriter, a producer, a maker of documentaries and films for TV, an assistant director, and a production manager.

By 1989, Benlyazid produced her first feature film, A Door In The Sky, though this was not her first cinematic work. In 1981, she produced the film and wrote the screenplay for Cane Dolls (Poupees de Roseau) by her second and now ex-husband Jillhali Ferhaiti and wrote the script for Mohammed A. Tazi's Badis (1986). Three years after her first feature film, she wrote another script for the film Looking for My Wife's Husband in 1992. Since then, Benlyazid has continued to produce, direct, and write both films and documentaries and has established and founded her own independent production company, Tinginita, coming from the ancient name of Tangier, Tingis.

As a journalist, Benlyazid authored two short stories and has written politically as a journalist and critic in journals and magazines including Kantara, Le Libéral, El Mundo, and Autrement .

Benlyazid remains to be one of few women in Morocco who are directing, producing and scriptwriting for films, as family and social support remain to be a challenge for many hoping to pursue careers in film. At the start of her career, no national film fund existed in Morocco due to a history of colonisation by the French which delayed the nationalisation of the Moroccan film industry, presenting a clear barrier to produce film. According to Florence Martini, Benlyazid is considered throughout the Middle East and North Africa to have challenged traditional institutions and beliefs in Morocco by neglecting to impose any forms of self-censorship when portraying the monarchy or religion. Other obstacles for Moroccan women wishing to pursue film like Benlyazid may include pay, according to Benlyazid herself who claims, "We have no market here and it is difficult to get financing. Everytime I apply for a project, I get less money than the men do. "

Representations of Women and Islam
Common themes in Benlyazid's films include the multidimensional and complex portrayals of Moroccan women which scholars such as Sandra Gayle Carter state stem from Benlyazid incorporating her own personal philosophies on gender, humanity, and religion into her scripts and films. Carter argues that although Benlyazid received a Western education, the director's feminist approach to the representation of Moroccan women's struggles is anything but western-centric. Benlyazid characters, when faced with problems in Moroccan society, resolve them through a form of female liberation rooted in Moroccan culture and beliefs.

Representations of Islam and Islamic values are another common theme in Benlyazid's work. Her first feature film, A Door in the Sky, a highly debated and controversial film in both Europe and North Africa, portrays a tension between tradition and modernity and a French and Moroccan identity. According to Mustapha Hamil, in the characters journey of self-discovery and understanding in this film, Islam is shown to be compatible with modernity, as Islamic culture is merged with a feminist consciousness. In this way, both the traditional aspects of Islam and the modern teachings of Western feminism help form and realise the main characters identity as Benlyazid adapts neither a wholly Eastern or Western approach, but rather merges the two. In a review of the film by Viola Shafik in Arab Cinema, History and Cultural Identity, Shafik notes that A Door in the Sky appreciates traditional aspects of Islam and Western approaches to feminism, which in fact have a long-held tradition in Islamic culture, can be used in female self realisation.

As a scriptwriter:

 * Arayiss men / Kasab Poupées de Roseau / Cane Dolls (1981)
 * Badis 1564 (1986)
 * A la recherche du mari de ma femme / Looking for the Husband of My Wife (1993)
 * L’Histoire d’une rose / A Story of a Rose (2007)

As a director/producer:

 * Bab al-sama' maftooh / Une Porte sur le Ciel / Door to the Sky (1989)
 * Aminata Traoré / Une femme de Sahel / Woman of the Sahel (1993)
 * Sur la terrace / On the Terrace (1995)
 * Kayd Insa / Ruses de femmes / Women's Wiles (1999)
 * Casablanca (2002)
 * La Vida perra de Juanita Narboni / La Chienne de vie de Juanita Narboni / The Wretched Life of Juanita Narboni (2005)
 * Casanayda / Casa ça bouge / Casa Is Rocking (2007)
 * Through the Blooming Valley's (2016)