A Way Home
Fall Grants 2018 - Production Stage
Karima Saidi / Feature Experimental or Essay / Morocco, Belgium, France, Qatar / 2020 / 90 min / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Immigration, Identity, Creative Documentary, Exile
Synopsis
After years of separation, the filmmaker renews her relationship with her mother, Aïcha, who is now suffering from Alzheimer’s. From Brussels to Tangiers, this is an odyssey of a family marked by exile—evoked through discretion and confession, pain, separation, grief, and joy.
Credits
- Director
- Karima Saidi
- Screenwriter
- Karima Saidi
- Producer
- Karim Aitouna
- Production Company
- Hautlesmains Productions
About the Director
Karima Saïdi has a degree in Film Editing and Script Continuity from INSAS and a master's in Film Writing and Analysis from ULB. She is an accomplished documentary film editor, having worked on projects such as 'Femme Taxi à Sidi Bel Abbes' by Hadjaj Belkacem, 'The Dawned of the Sea' by Jawad Rhaleb, 'Red Hair and Black Coffee' by Milena Bochet, and 'Clejani' by Marta Bergman. Additionally, she has developed a career as a scriptwriter for feature films, including 'When Pigs Have Wings' by Sylvain Estibal, 'Our Children' by Joachim Lafosse, and 'Adios Carmen' by Mohamed Amin Benamraoui. In 2013, she created 'Murmurs' and '10 Voices,' a series of sound portraits of Moroccan immigrants in Brussels. In 2016, she paused her activities to care for her mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. This experience inspired her first feature-length documentary, 'A Way Home,' in 2020. Selected at IDFA for its world premiere, the film won several awards and is considered a turning point in the visibility of first-generation Arab immigrant women. 'Those Who Watch Over' is the second opus in her work on exile and its traces. Karima Saïdi teaches at the INSAS Film School in Brussels, the University of Liège, and the ESAV Film School in Marrakech.