ABOUT ME...

Breaking boundaries, creating without limits

For as long as I can remember, stories have been my way of engaging with the world. As a child, books were my constant companions, fueling my imagination and shaping the way I saw reality. Every line I read unfolded as an image in my mind, every story became a film playing before my eyes. Very early on, I knew that my contribution to this world would come through images and storytelling. Cinema was not just a career path for me—it was a calling.

Before my first official short film, "Un Ticket pour le Paradis", I had already shot two experimental shorts that never saw the light of day. They remained unfinished, yet they were my true apprenticeships, my laboratories of maturity. Later came "Cicatrices", one of my most defining works. Selected and awarded in numerous festivals, both national and international, the film went beyond the festival circuit: it was embraced as a pedagogical tool in Moroccan universities of modern literature. It remains a cornerstone of my journey.

In December 2006, I entered the Moroccan film industry as a first assistant director on a 35mm short produced by Casablanca Film Production. Initially, I saw it as a learning opportunity, a way to understand the landscape and prepare for my own films. But as I excelled, I realized I was becoming trapped in this role: producers knew me as a first assistant, not as a director. The realization sparked an intense artistic frustration — a uniquely cinematic struggle, where years of dedication might not culminate in a single realized film, unlike other art forms where creation meets the eye almost instantly.

This period of introspection led me to break the walls of the box labeled “filmmaker” I voluntarily put myself in for many years. The effects were tastefully surprising. I embraced the full spectrum of my creative potential — painting, design, eyewear creation, writing, and beyond. For me, the sky is the limit when it comes to creativity. I began to devote myself not only to cinema but also to essays, short stories, articles, and a nascent novel.

This broader vision also guided me to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, where I led cultural projects of scale. My proudest achievement remains Bayt Al Fenn, an interdisciplinary artistic residency that I conceived, designed, and directed from the ground up. Today, in its fifth edition, it empowers young Moroccan multidisciplinary artists to share their voices nationally and internationally. Since 2021, I have also been working with the Fabienne Colas Foundation, collaborating with filmmakers and producers worldwide while contributing to the vitality of the Black Film Festivals in Canada and abroad. This mission has allowed me to refine a unique expertise in programming, digital content curation, and the global showcasing of cinematic works.

Beyond titles and roles, my compass remains unchanged: to tell, to transmit, to connect. My films, my projects, and my commitments are all driven by a search for images that move, that question, and that bridge cultures. Today, I continue this quest with a desire to explore new narrative languages — at the intersection of cinema, contemporary art, and emerging technologies.

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