Amussu
Fall Grants 2018
Nadir Bouhmouch / Feature Documentary / Morocco, Qatar / 2019 / 90 min / Original Language: Tamazight / Interests: Social Issues, Identity, Creative Documentary
Synopsis
Imider, southeastern Morocco. A rapacious silver mine has syphoned aquifer water for decades, drying out the almond groves belonging to a small Amazigh community. Fearing their fragile oasis might disappear and their livelihoods destroyed, the villagers peacefully rebelled in 2011 and shut down a major water pipeline heading towards the mine. Seven years later, they continue to occupy it, in a protest camp which has now practically turned into a small solar-powered village. However, backed by conniving intelligence services and aggressively protected by the police, Africa’s biggest silver mine is no easy adversary. Dozens have been arrested for taking part in what the villagers have called “Amussu of Ubrid n ’96” (Movement on Road ’96). Nonetheless, the resilient villagers continue to resist with the little means they have—songs, dry bread, weekly protests, a flimsy camera, a film festival and endless ingenuity.
Credits
- Director
- Nadir Bouhmouch
- Screenwriter
- The Community of Imider & Nadir Bouhmouch
- Producer
- The Movement on Road '96
- Production Company
- MOR-LFCI
- Production Company
- MOR-LFCI
About the Director
Nadir Bouhmouch is a 27-year-old filmmaker and producer based in Marrakech. In 2011, Nadir directed his first work, 'My Makhzen & Me', a web documentary about Morocco’s February 20th uprising. Nadir’s other works include 'Timnadin N Rif' (2017), a short documentary, and 'Paradises of the Earth' (2017-), a web series on the environmental causes of the Tunisian revolution. In addition to his work in film, Nadir is also a researcher, photographer and writer focusing on indigenous land rights and environmental issues in Morocco’s marginalised interior regions. Some of his work has been published by Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye and Le Monde.
Awards and Festival History
Festivals
"Hot Docs 2019 (WP)
IDFA 2019
Rencontres Int'l du Documentaire de Montréal 2019
Citizen Film Days 2019 (Algeria)
Bozar IFF 2020 (Brussels)
29 screenings in November 2019 in Morocco across 10 cities
"
"Grand prize, FIDADOC 2019
Special Mention, Gabes FF 2020 (online edition)
"