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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The Future Tense review – film-makers’ complex reverie of English and Irish identities

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Semi-dramatised essay film by Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy explores complicated national loyalties alongside those of an extraordinary rebel

The intriguing, complex movies of the married writer-directors Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy have always been about imposture, concealment, double lives and alternative existences – particularly in what I think may be their masterpiece, the drama-thriller Rose Plays Julie. Now they have composed this fiercely personal essay movie about themselves and their family histories, loosely structured around the idea of a plane journey between London and Dublin. Lawlor and Molloy are shown separately narrating into microphones, and “interviewing” people filmed in separate locations, a conceit apparently imposed during lockdown.

It is a semi-dramatised reverie and revelation which exposes a painful new insight into their experiences as Irish expatriate artists in the UK; they are considering a return to Ireland now that post-Brexit England seems increasingly reactionary and xenophobic, while also being aware of the reactionary forces at work in Irish politics. They are also aware that their daughter, having been brought up in England, may not wish to join them. Have they also been concealing double lives as Irish people in England?

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