The Mother of All Lies review – pursuing the truth of Morocco’s brutal dictatorship years

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Asmae El Moudir employs a delicate mix of handmade replicas and oral testimony to brilliantly evoke personal and collective trauma Between those who refuse to remember and those who struggle to forget, a tumultuous clash of minds occupies the centre of Asmae El Moudir’s inventive documentary, a prize-winner at last year’s Cannes film festival. Through a constellation of clay figurines and dollhouse-style miniature sets, most of which were constructed by El Moudir’s father, the director recreates her oppressive childhood in the Sebata district of Casablanca. Under the watchful eyes of her domineering grandmother Zahra, all personal photos are banished from the house, save for a picture of King Hassan II. The delicate mix of handmade replicas and oral testimony brilliantly evokes the personal and collective trauma that stem from Morocco’s “Years of Lead” – a period of state brutality under Hassan II’s dictatorial rule. Lingering on the nimble fingers of El Moudir’s father as he puts t
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Polite Society review – fun action comedy mashes Jane Austen and the Chuckle Brothers

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A pointed satire of the marriage market from We Are Lady Parts’ Nida Manzoor delivers the laughs – and some full tilt comedy action

Nida Manzoor created We Are Lady Parts for Channel 4, a sitcom about an all-female, all-Muslim punk band; now, for her debut feature film, she brings serious levels of goof, wack and zane for a feelgood action comedy with a very incorrect adjective in the title. It stars newcomer Priya Kansara as a young girl from a British-Pakistani family: Ria, a year 11 martial arts enthusiast and wannabe stuntwoman on a desperate mission to sabotage her older sister’s marriage to a guy that somehow only she can see is a sinister creep.

Kansara does a lot of her own gonzo stunts and kickboxing moves, and the sheer energy and full tilt comedy she brings to them had me thinking of the young Jackie Chan in Drunken Master. Manzoor’s film also has bits of Jane Austen, Kevin Kwan and Gurinder Chadha, with a cheeky homage to the Chuckle Brothers in the sequence in which two people must carry a heavy box down the stairs.

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