Documentary by Tarek el-Idrissi, Morocco 2014, 76 min.
Discussant: Naoual Belakhdar
Arabic/Rif/French with Eng. ST
Synopsis:
Between 1958 and 1959 the inhabitants of the Rif province suffered ferocious repression in response to their uprising against the creation of the new Moroccan state. In their eyes the centralist politics of the kingdom was destroying their grown political, social and economic structure. As a result fear has reigned the Moroccan Rif for more than 50 years creating a strong taboo around the subject. Through interviews with eye-witnesses and archival material the film has managed to break this old taboo.
Rif 58-59
Film screening and discussion with Naoual Belakhdar (Freie Universität Berlin)
Werkstatt der Kulturen, Wissmannstraße 32, 12049 Berlin
Naoual Belakhdar is a research associate, lecturer and PhD candidate at the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics (Freie Universität Berlin). Her research interests focus on social movements and statehood in the post-colonial Maghreb and Mashreq, with a particular focus on political participation, protest and resistance movements as well as on collective memory, film and politics. In her dissertation, she works on the transformation of state-society relations in post-civil-war Algeria in light of social protests. Her latest publications include : « L’éveil du Sud » ou quand la contestation vient de la marge. Une analyse du mouvement des chômeurs algériens, in: Politique africaine 2015/1 (N° 137), and « Political Participation Beyond the Polling Station in Algeria. Insights from Tizi-Ouzou, in: Bouziane, Malika; Harders, Cilja; Hoffmann, Anja (eds.) 2013: Local Politics and Contemporary Transformation in the Arab World - Governance Beyond the Center. Series: Governance and Limited Statehood. Palgrave Macmillan.
The film screening and discussion are part of the Arabic film series “Beyond Spring”, organized by Mayadin Al-Tahrir e.V., EUME and the Werkstatt der Kulturen.