Feature Narrative
TOTAL BUDGET
US $1,103,650
CONFIRMED FINANCING
US $15,000
CONTACT
kalbrane@gmail.com
They finally reach the doctor’s house in the small hours, and the new day ushers forth a totally different dynamic in the group.
During the penultimate performance of a dance company’s show at the Maison de la Culture in a little village in the Atlas Mountains, Hedi, one of the six dancers in the company, injures Aida, his partner on and off the stage, while the other dancers look on in horror.
The village neither has a doctor nor a nurse, and so the company is forced to take to the road and go to a neighboring village to seek help for Aida. The full moon lights their way as they take this perilous detour to ensure the last, most important performance show goes according to plan.
Their adventure begins in a forest, after the minibus breaks down and the group continue their journey to the village on foot. Seif, the youngest dancer, goes missing, and the company breaks up into smaller groups to search for him. This brings us closer to each of the characters, and allows us to get to know their true personalities and individual preoccupations.
The dancers finally reach the doctor’s house in the small hours, the new day ushering forth a totally different dynamic in the group.
I spent much of my youth on stage, first as a professional dancer and then as an actress. I was lucky to have several ‘families.’ Onstage, accidents happen – a slap, a shove, or worse. Putting on a show and going on tour creates a certain intimacy on and off the stage. Too often, backstage intrigues between partners, of which the audience and director are often blissfully unaware, do happen. This is where the real drama plays out, and why I decided to put the camera mainly offstage. I had two major areas of interest: women’s bodies that allow them the singular opportunity to carry a child, and how this turns them into machines dictated to by society or their biological clocks, giving them almost no choice but to follow the natural order of things – to have children; and bisexuality, which is still taboo, or mistaken for homosexuality. I wanted to explore these issues in a context that was familiar to me, the world of dance. My intention is to underline how much time we are wasting worrying and warring with one another, and how by not living in the present moment we are letting real life pass us by.
Khalil Benkirane graduated with a degree in Film studies from San Francisco State University in 1995. He was appointed Artistic Director and then Executive Director of The Arab Film Festival, Cinemayaat, in San Francisco from 1998 to 2002. He later moved to Morocco, where he directed and produced his first feature documentary, The White Thread (2007). In 2008, Khalil relocated to Qatar, where he produced over 75 documentary and narrative films for Al Jazeera Children. In early 2011, he joined the Doha Film Institute where he currently heads the Grants Programme. Khalil is a founding member of The Cinemathèque de Tanger (CdT) and a previous board member of the Young Arab Theater Fund (YATF).