The Blue Caftan | Awards
Dir. by Maryam Touzani | 2022 | France, Morocco, Belgium, Denmark | 122 Mins | M
Glam Adelaide | 5 Star Review
Christos Tsiolkas | The Saturday Paper Review
WINNER – Fipresci Prize – Un Certain Regard. Cannes Film Festival 2022
WINNER – Grand Jury Prize, Golden Star – Marrakech International Film Festival 2022
WINNER – Grand Jury Prize- International Feature – NewFest LGBTQ+ Film Festival NYC
WINNER – Audience Award – Athens International Film Festival 2022
WINNER – Greek Film Critics Association Award – Athens International Film Festival 2022
WINNER – Best Director | Silver Hugo – Chicago International Film Festival 2022
WINNER – Best Actress – Vallladolid | Mexico | International Film Festival 2022
WINNER – Audience Award – Panorama | Vancouver International Film Festival 2022
WINNER – Best Narrative Feature – Arab Film Festival 2022
A forbidden love triangle in a small Moroccan town.
Mina (Lubna Azabal – Incendies, Paradise Now) and her husband Halim (Saleh Bakri – Costa Brava, Lebanon) run a small business making and selling bespoke caftans in one of Morocco’s oldest medinas. Halim is a master of his trade, and Mina a canny saleswoman, though their wares don’t come cheap and traditional dress is falling out of favour.
Woven with exquisite care, Maryam Touzani’s Cannes Un Certain Regard winning drama reveals a beautiful love triangle in a small Moroccan town (where gay relations are forbidden). Touzani explores a complex marriage with tenderness and grace in a sincere and superbly performed film that unfolds in unexpected and heartening ways.
Co-funded by the
Creative Europe MEDIA Programme
of the European Union.
SYNOPSIS
GALLERY
QUOTES
If you only see one film this year, then this is the one
- Glam Adelaide -
Maryam Touzani’s gorgeously subtle second film, The Blue Caftan, shows the skill and intelligence of a much more experienced director.
- The Saturday Paper -
This beautifully textured Moroccan drama is superbly acted and emotionally resonant
The Blue Caftan is an elegant, artisanal film
- Screen Daily -
A film of exquisite sensuality
A work of handcrafted beauty
A stirring love story
A film of overwhelming tenderness — in exchanged glances or tactile moments as fleeting as one hand lightly touching another
- The Hollywood Reporter -
Anchored by three remarkable performances and a beautiful script that never wastes a line, Maryam Touzani made a film that oozes love from almost every frame.
- IndieWire -
Sensual and tactile
A hugely touching love story
- The Film Verdict -
A drama as indulgent and intricately woven as the silky garments themselves.
A subtle love story that works both as a gay awakening piece and a testament to enduring marital love.
- Filmuforia -
Reviews
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Mina and Halim have been married for many years. Together, they run a caftan shop in an old Medina in Morocco. Halim works in the traditional way, hand-embroidering dresses with detailed, exquisite patterns. As he starts to slow up in his work, they decide to take on an apprentice, Youssef, who has the skills, and is keen to learn the trade. Gradually the relationship between the two men develops into something more. Meanwhile a customer clamours for the blue caftan she ordered weeks ago, and Mina becomes weaker with the cancer which has wracked her for some time.
Director and writer Maryam Touzani has crafted in The Blue Caftan, a film of intense intimacy, which evolves into a work of universality.
Belgian actor Lubna Azabal, Israel’s Saleh Bakri, and new face Ayoub Missioui, star as Mina, Halim, and Youssef respectively. Touzani has pulled together an almost perfect trio to embody her characters. This chamber-piece is all about the leads, with the only minor parts being shop customers, and Mina’s doctor. Watching these three work together is a masterclass in underplayed, powerful, acting. There is palpable magic on the screen.
The screenplay by Touzani and Nabil Ayouch gives the actors just enough words, and plenty of space. Mostly set in the little shop in the Medina, and in Mina and Halim’s apartment, The Blue Caftan could have felt like a play. It very much establishes itself as film in the use of extreme close-ups, both of characters, and of the eponymous caftan as it is embroidered by Halim and Youssef. There is also lush art direction which focuses on the vital minutiae of the shop, and the characters’ everyday lives.
This is a love story. A narrative which explores the authentic depths of love in many different guises. Halim knows that a truly beautiful caftan takes time and patience, and sometimes a little unpicking. So too does true love. And as with a bespoke garment, love is not one-size-fits-all.
There is no question why The Blue Caftan was Morocco’s official submission for the International Feature Film category of the 2023 Academy Awards.
If you only see one film this year, then this is the one.
The Blue Caftan opens in Australia on May 18th.
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In Moroccan director Maryam Touzani’s elegant and wise new film, The Blue Caftan, Halim (Saleh Bakri) is a maalem, a master tailor, who has inherited the craft from his father. He and his wife, Mina (Lubna Azabal), own a small dress shop in the medina of their home town in Morocco. Halim insists on maintaining the traditions of the maalem, sewing by hand the exquisite wedding caftans that are his specialty.