Les Meutes, the first feature film directed and written by Kamal Lazraq, was presented in the Un Certain Regard selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2023, and awarded the Prix du Jury. This drama, to be released in cinemas on July 19, 2023, stars Ayoub Elaid and Abdellatif Masstouri as a father and son living in Casablanca, confronted with a delicate situation during a hectic night.
The film tells the story of Hassan and Issam, a father and son trying to survive in the working-class suburbs of Casablanca by working for the local underworld. One evening, when they are assigned to kidnap a man, he accidentally dies in their car. With the corpse on their hands, they look for ways to make him disappear, leading to a long night through the city's underworld.
Kamal Lazraq, who graduated from the Fémis film school in Paris in 2011, explains in an interview with Bref Cinéma magazine that this first feature-length film is an extension of his previous short, Moul Lkelb (The Man with the Dog). The director wanted to further explore the urgency of a desperate quest, wandering the urban bangs and encounters with strange characters.
Les Meutes was also awarded the Prix Artekino at the Ateliers de l'Atlas at the 2019 Marrakech International Film Festival, as well as the Prix à la Création from the Gan Foundation in 2021. Co-produced by Barney Production (France), Mont Fleuri Production (Morocco) and Beluga Tree (Belgium), filming took place from October 10 to November 18, 2022 in Casablanca.
Kamal Lazraq says he was inspired by the energy of his characters and the Casablanca locations they pass through. He wrote the film with the ambition of telling a universal yet genuinely local story, and says he was delighted with the exchange with the jury at the awards, feeling that the project was understood.
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