Moumen Smihi, 44, or Tales of the Night/ 44 ou les récits de la nuit
Morocco 1981, 35mm, 110 mins
Shot in exceptionally beautiful widescreen images by Pierre Lhomme, 44, or Tales of the Night presents a fresco of Morocco’s 44 years of colonization as a protectorate of France. With the sweep of Miklos Jansco’s historical films and a mise-en-scène that owes much to Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard (1963), 44 tries to capture the sumptuousness and misery of a religious family from Fes and an impoverished family in Chaouen, within a society fighting for its independence. Smihi draws equally on the traditions of the Arabian Nights tales and the picaresque narratives of James Joyce in order to present multiple points of view on a complex and mobile national history.
Film programme notes by Peter Limbrick