When Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman starred in the legendary movie Casablanca, they never knew that this city could become the vicious tyrant of Nour Eddien Lakhmari’s Casanegra. Their city was one in which lovers reunited, wrongs were righted, peace was restored and poetic justice reigned supreme. Casanegra, simply, has none of these. This is The Black House - “black as your fucking mother’s asshole”.
Lakhmari’s 2008 release is a movie that surrounds the parallel lives and concerns of Karim and Adil, both unemployed and both dreamers. These youngsters realise very young that money can work miracles in their city (as in any other). Karim has a senile, paralysed father and needs to support his family of four. Adil struggles with an abusive step father. These boys seek escape from the harsh realities of their lives in their own unique ways. Adil dreams of illegally migrating to Sweden, land of snow and beautiful women, while Karim lazes the streets of Morocco in a suit and often stops at the door of Nabila, a beautiful classy antique dealer. The movie is an intense but gentle depiction of desperation, frustration, powerlessness, exploitation and, in spite of it all, love and friendship.
In the persuasion of their dreams and friendship thicker than water, these two get involved with Zrirek, an infamous bloodhound of the neighbourhood. Karim and Adil get associated with this merciless gangster and are sent on a series of missions to accomplish, only to falter and fumble, sometimes successfully achieving their goal and sometimes not.
Though the movie has been hailed as a depiction of the underbelly of the city of romance, I feel the director has chosen to highlight the poignancy and the humour even in the most hopeless and brutal situations. Zrirek, the feared don of the city, looks like an imbecile in his love for Nico the dog, the manly bargirl and songs. On their first mission, the two friends are too polite to threaten their victim and later too capricious to be careful. The director has given his audience a Casablanca infested with class stratification, poverty and stone hearted capitalists but he also chooses to highlight the vulnerable side to the budding gangsters who are immature, fanciful and playful. At times, they seem almost unprepared for the lessons of the world.
The director has given his audience a complexity of character. Adil and Karim are similar but also different in temperament. As the story unfolds, we realise that the cautious Karim is the one who bashes up people while the impulsive Adil is the one who schemes and secretly covets money. There is also a subtle probing into what it means to be a man. The boys appear macho and stoic and initially are forced to suppress their softer sides. Lakhmari’s work is definitely a fine probing into human nature and its indiscernible depth without appearing pretentious. You may feel at certain moments in the movie that the plot seems contrived. It is, however, given the generosity of thought in the movie, forgivable.
Casanegra is a work of precision. The mis-en-scene are diligently balanced and lighted, an architectural delight. The movie, in spite of being fast paced, has the contradictory fluid and unhurried pace of camera movement. The movie is visually stunning and captures it protagonists sometimes as demi-gods and sometimes as vulnerable youngsters. The frames are expansive and uncluttered at the same time. The twin cultures of degradation and affluence and seen throughout the movie. The city never leaves the frame - its colonial houses, winding streets, its corporate towers and garbage piles are available everywhere. When it’s white it looks ghastly, when it is dark it appears crowded with life. Richard Horowitz has done an incredible job as the music director and provides the lift required to a story of hardships and broken dreams. The movie is thus an absolute delight to the senses.
You will soon realise that Casanegra is not only about the squalid side to the city, but also the dark side to oneself. Adil and Karim are constantly pitched between the choices they have to make. Their struggle to escape is not only from a pitiless city, but also from the pain and anger in their own lives.
The movie is definitely not a sardonic parody of gangster life. Its mockery of ambition is sensitive to its characters and is definitely a wholesome look at the city’s conditions and its citizens. There are strugglers, survivors, victors and losers. The movie, without becoming sentimental, has the power to move the audience not through pity, but rather through an affirmation of life and relationships.
Watch this movie. There is no “We’ll always have Paris”. There is only Casanegra.
WARNING: This is no Slumdog Millionaire either.
Casanegra was screened at the Mumbai Film Festival 2009
Casanegra (2008)
Nour Eddien Lakhmari
Starring Anas Elbaz, Omar Lotfi, Mohamed Benbrahim et al
214 min
Arabic
Lakhmari’s 2008 release is a movie that surrounds the parallel lives and concerns of Karim and Adil, both unemployed and both dreamers. These youngsters realise very young that money can work miracles in their city (as in any other). Karim has a senile, paralysed father and needs to support his family of four. Adil struggles with an abusive step father. These boys seek escape from the harsh realities of their lives in their own unique ways. Adil dreams of illegally migrating to Sweden, land of snow and beautiful women, while Karim lazes the streets of Morocco in a suit and often stops at the door of Nabila, a beautiful classy antique dealer. The movie is an intense but gentle depiction of desperation, frustration, powerlessness, exploitation and, in spite of it all, love and friendship.
In the persuasion of their dreams and friendship thicker than water, these two get involved with Zrirek, an infamous bloodhound of the neighbourhood. Karim and Adil get associated with this merciless gangster and are sent on a series of missions to accomplish, only to falter and fumble, sometimes successfully achieving their goal and sometimes not.
Though the movie has been hailed as a depiction of the underbelly of the city of romance, I feel the director has chosen to highlight the poignancy and the humour even in the most hopeless and brutal situations. Zrirek, the feared don of the city, looks like an imbecile in his love for Nico the dog, the manly bargirl and songs. On their first mission, the two friends are too polite to threaten their victim and later too capricious to be careful. The director has given his audience a Casablanca infested with class stratification, poverty and stone hearted capitalists but he also chooses to highlight the vulnerable side to the budding gangsters who are immature, fanciful and playful. At times, they seem almost unprepared for the lessons of the world.
The director has given his audience a complexity of character. Adil and Karim are similar but also different in temperament. As the story unfolds, we realise that the cautious Karim is the one who bashes up people while the impulsive Adil is the one who schemes and secretly covets money. There is also a subtle probing into what it means to be a man. The boys appear macho and stoic and initially are forced to suppress their softer sides. Lakhmari’s work is definitely a fine probing into human nature and its indiscernible depth without appearing pretentious. You may feel at certain moments in the movie that the plot seems contrived. It is, however, given the generosity of thought in the movie, forgivable.
Casanegra is a work of precision. The mis-en-scene are diligently balanced and lighted, an architectural delight. The movie, in spite of being fast paced, has the contradictory fluid and unhurried pace of camera movement. The movie is visually stunning and captures it protagonists sometimes as demi-gods and sometimes as vulnerable youngsters. The frames are expansive and uncluttered at the same time. The twin cultures of degradation and affluence and seen throughout the movie. The city never leaves the frame - its colonial houses, winding streets, its corporate towers and garbage piles are available everywhere. When it’s white it looks ghastly, when it is dark it appears crowded with life. Richard Horowitz has done an incredible job as the music director and provides the lift required to a story of hardships and broken dreams. The movie is thus an absolute delight to the senses.
You will soon realise that Casanegra is not only about the squalid side to the city, but also the dark side to oneself. Adil and Karim are constantly pitched between the choices they have to make. Their struggle to escape is not only from a pitiless city, but also from the pain and anger in their own lives.
The movie is definitely not a sardonic parody of gangster life. Its mockery of ambition is sensitive to its characters and is definitely a wholesome look at the city’s conditions and its citizens. There are strugglers, survivors, victors and losers. The movie, without becoming sentimental, has the power to move the audience not through pity, but rather through an affirmation of life and relationships.
Watch this movie. There is no “We’ll always have Paris”. There is only Casanegra.
WARNING: This is no Slumdog Millionaire either.
Casanegra was screened at the Mumbai Film Festival 2009
Casanegra (2008)
Nour Eddien Lakhmari
Starring Anas Elbaz, Omar Lotfi, Mohamed Benbrahim et al
214 min
Arabic
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