IN CASABLANCA
ANGELS DON'T FLY aka
A CASABLANCA LES ANGES NE VOLENT PAS

Year: 2004
UK: ICA Projects
Cast: Abdessamed Miftah el Kheir, Abderrazak el Badaoui, Rachid el Hazmir, Leila el Ahyani, Abdelaziz Essghyr, Ali Achtouk
Director: Mohamed Asli
Countries: Morocco / Italy
Language: Arabic (English subtitles)
UK: 94 mins
UK Certificate: PG contains some emotional intensity
UK Release Date: 3 September 2004

Synopsis

This assured debut feature by Mahamed Asli is a gently tragicomic tale of three men who work at a cafe in Casablanca. Said, Ismail and Ottman work for a pittance, but all nurture dreams of escape and fulfilment. Said is trying to save up money to send home to his expectant wife, Aicha. She has difficulty staying in touch with Said as she doesn't know how to write and has a hard time accessing the village's only telephone. While Ismail is delivering an order he sees a fine pair of new shoes in a shop window and decides he must find a way to buy them, even though the price is far outside his budget. Ottman's pride and joy before he left the village was his fine Arabian stallion. Now that he's gone, his mother wants him to sell the horse so she can pay her bills. Unexpected poetic and comic flourishes and strong performances from the largely non-professional cast, complimented by an authentic Moroccan soundtrack, result in a truly magical watch.