LARAKI ABDELHAI

Biography

Graduating from the École Louis-Lumière in Paris, and in Cinema studies at the Sorbonne university under the direction of Jean Rouch, Laraki alternates his creative activities between advertising, television and cinema. He acts as a major player in the Moroccan audiovisual industry, and an active member of Moroccan civil society by promoting the development of human rights. In the 90s he pioneered with awareness campaigns for the Ministry of Health and WHO, the National Human Rights Council. His film « Les Corsaires de l’Atlantique » screens at the 1998 Lisbon World Expo. He produces major cinematic works such as « Le Grand Voyage » together with Humbert Balsan(Venice winner); J’ai Vu Tuer Ben Barka, for the 40th anniversary of the disappearance of the Moroccan political leader. In his personal works, he freely uses cinema and television alike to look at Moroccan society’s transformation: the question of identity in «Mona Saber» (Marrakech FIFM award winner), the power of money in « Parfum de Mer », individual freedom and the relationship to the body in « Love in the Medina » that is at the centre of the the debates on the freedom of artists and the «Art Propre». In his TV works too he questions le condition of women, islamic inheritance, internet violence or the place of children with autism in our society.

A common thread can be found in Laraki’s films: a reflection on humanity, its relationship to society, to history, to Islam and power. The directorconsiders cinema and art as a tool of resistance in front of human obscurantism and arbitrariness.