Preview. “My father is not dead” or the years of lead seen by a child

It is into a world of colors and eccentricity that Adil El Fadili invited artists and film enthusiasts alike to the preview screening of his latest feature film, Tuesday evening at the Megarama in Casablanca. The director unveils an indisputable work which combines a fanciful atmosphere with a deeply moving and poignant context, thus risking surprising uninformed spectators.

Acclaimed and awarded in 2024 in multiple international festivals, “My father is not dead” takes place in the picturesque world of a funfair, where Malik, a young child aged 10, and his father Mehdi live. When the latter disappears, the boy finds himself alone in a frantic quest to find him.

We tend to think of a parallel that Adil El Fadili could have made between this image and the death of his own father, the actor Aziz El Fadili who left us in 2021. However, this idea that film critics have put forward is rejected by the filmmaker: “the title of the film existed before my father’s disappearance and many people made the link with that, even though it has nothing to do with it“, he explains.

He continues: “I was lucky to have a passionate father, an artist and to have grown up with puppets. Besides, the film is a bit like that, full of colors around a dark story.” A script full of twists and turns which takes spectators into the so-called “lead” 1970s, admirably evoked on screen. Indeed, the father and son find themselves against their will in the middle of a tumultuous political gathering. There, Mehdi is violently attacked by two police officers who accuse him of propaganda against the government, under the horrified eyes of Malik. Later that night, the police raid the funfair and arrest the father who will never return…

Despite the sensitivity of the subject, the director opted for committed cinema, capable of transmitting to the younger generation the “historical difficulties» that Morocco has experienced, but also to show “to this generation how Morocco evolved after», which makes this film a force for emancipation. He is not a victim, does not play on a sensitive chord already deployed in Moroccan cinema, but prefers to build and forgive.

Read also: “My father is not dead”, by Adil El Fadili, hits theaters in January 2025

Fatima Atif plays the leading female role in “My father is not dead” and wants to convey the message that the artist shares through her cinematographic work. “He wanted to revisit the 70s, but he did so with a singularly luminous approach, full of color“, she explains. This artistic choice aims to offer Moroccan spectators a bridge of reconciliation, to move forward better. Although this period remains a significant era in Moroccan history, the film approaches it with humor and sensitivity, a tribute to the director’s creative roots.

The moving role of young Malik is played by Adam Raghal, who is playing his first acting role in the cinema. His innocence, a common thread in the plot, is a search for lost paternity, and the meaning to be given to filiation.

“My father is not dead” brings together sure values ​​and new talents, among others, Aziz El Fadili, Mohamed Khouyi, Omar Lotfi, Nadia Kounda, Faouzi Bensaïdi, Didier Bénureau and Abdenbi El Beniwi.

The filming of the opus was marked by incessant challenges, as the director emphasizes: “The strong moments were only difficulties. It was very difficult.» These obstacles were related to production conditions, he specifies. Made in just two months, the film was shot entirely in a studio, where a meticulous recreation of old Casablanca from the 1970s took shape.

Likewise, budgetary constraints hampered production, forcing the team to regularly interrupt filming to find financing before being able to continue. “Every time we ran out of budget, we had to stop to get the money and continue the film», confides Adil El Fadili, testifying to the tenacity and passion which carried this project to the end. The challenge was arduous. The result is stunning.