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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Steel Life review – a journey through the poisoned majesty of Peru

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This vivid documentary follows a train from the Andes to Port of Callao on the Pacific coast, capturing rich life and toxic industrial legacies along the way

Carrying more than 1,000 tonnes of metal, a freight train heads down the Peruvian Central Railway, a route that stretches from the Andean city of Cerro de Pasco, one of the highest in the world, to the Port of Callao on the Pacific coast. Structured around this journey, Manuel Bauer’s documentary debut weaves a vivid tapestry of experiences that captures the complex sociopolitical fabric of contemporary Peru.

Dominating these intimate anecdotes, which are spread across regions, is the influence of the mining industry. Manuel, a middle-aged native of Cerro de Pasco, speaks of how his friends and relatives have either died of lead poisoning or chosen to migrate to other towns. Health concerns trouble not only the older population of Peru, but also the children who grow up amid contamination. Here disease and early death are more than facts of life: they emerge as a disturbing kind of intergenerational inheritance.

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