HOUNDS
Genre
Thriller
Running time
94 minutes
Year
2023
Language
Arabic
Country
Morocco, France, Belgium and Qatar
Director
Kamal Lazraq
Bio
Producer
Saïd Hamich Benlarbi
Cast
Ayoub Elaid, Abdelatif Masstouri, Abdellah Lebkiri, Lahcen Zaimouzen, Salah Bensalah, Mohammed Kharbouchi
Scriptwriter
Kamal Lazraq
How to get rid of an inconvenient dead body? Father and son Hassan (Abdellatif Masstouri) and Issam (Ayoub Elaid) are used to scraping a living by doing jobs for Casablanca gangs, but find themselves in deeper trouble than when a man they were ordered to kidnap dies in their car. Hassan, clinging to a shred of decency, insists on giving the victim a proper burial. That begins their wild goose chase through the city’s slums in search of a resting place beyond the warring gangsters’ territories, squabbling over what to do and how to do it; this is a tense, punchy film set in a violent milieu, but absurdly funny with it.
Other movies
SCARLET
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Mamoru Hosoda's time-warping animated epic is inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet and tells the story of medieval princess Scarlet, who vows to avenge the death of her father at the hands of her grasping uncle. Poisoned, she is thrust into a liminal realm where time collapses and she meets Hijiri, an idealistic medic from the present day. Visually daring, luminous and unflinching, Scarlet fuses hand-drawn richness with cutting-edge CG. Balancing visceral action and romance with a mature meditation on grief, the bounds of vengeance and our shared humanity, the film stands as an achingly relevant elegy in today’s war-scarred world.
BLACK RABBIT, WHITE RABBIT
Director: Shahram Mokri
Iranian filmmaker Shahram Mokri develops multiple plot strands this engrossing, multilayered, playful and skilled drama centering around Sarah, the victim of a suspicious car crash who is swaddled in bandages and at odds with her controlling husband. What turns out to be a film-within-a-film-within-a-film zooms out to include the remake of a classic Iranian movie in Tajikistan, an armourer worried about a prop gun and an actress looking for her big break. Of course their fates collide through multiple fluid, bravura circular takes, often covering the same time frame, bold touches of magical realism — or are they sight gags? — and an eternal mystery. This spinning story is Tajikistan’s Oscar entry for this year.
THE SETTLEMENT
Director: Mohamed Rashad
When 23-year-old Hossam's father dies in a factory accident, management of the factory offer a deal: a job for Hossam and his younger brother, 12-year-old Maro, in exchange for burying the truth. With a criminal record and a disabled mother to support, Hossam has little choice but to accept the job, even as his brother insists on working beside him. Hossam is pulled in multiple directions — between the truth of his father's death, a first love affair with a disappearing coworker and his community's dark reputation. This thriller has an intriguing atmosphere, and to emphasize the characters' oppression, director Mohamed Rashad uses sound — especially the overwhelming noise of the factory machines — to immerse the audience in a corrupt world.