Cert 12A
Directed by Nabil Ayouch, this is an eye-opening and uplifting film that forefronts rap as a revolutionary tool for change in contemporary, highly religious, indigenous Moroccan society. Based on his own experiences, Ayouch follows the fortunes of a former rapper as he tries to educate a group of underprivileged children to express themselves in the beauty of music and the liberating power of rap.
Dir: Nabil Ayouch, Morocco/France, 101 mins, 2021.
Programme Notes
The film is a re-assertion of hip-hop as a unifying force and an important artistic conduit. Although there are plot concessions (Anas comes up against a stuffy headmistress figure, the children’s home lives are restrictive) it essentially forges a narrative rhythm from scenes of the utterly charming kids as they perform, mess up and, crucially, realise their capabilities through dedication and trust.
It’s consistent too, that within a film so based upon hip-hop culture, Casablanca Beats seems to sample tropes from similarly themed movies: the town of Sidi Moumen is akin to the dance-phobic Bomont in Footloose (1984, dir. Herbert Ross) with its conservative opprobrium towards the rappers; the joyously innocent sequences of kids ‘killing it’ in the music room recall School of Rock (2013, dir. Richard Linklater) and the ending has a lovely feeling of Alan Parker’s Fame (1980) about it. The shared culture is for everyone, and Casablanca Beats references these tropes to set its own cadence, to forge its own idiosyncrasy. Furthermore, while pop culture may be open to all, the underlying theme is the restrictions these children otherwise face, from societal hegemonies to religion, family, et al.
Hip-hop, immediate and kinetically expressive, is here a tool of empowerment, with the performed rhymes showing how the kids see themselves within the communal contexts of strict Moroccan society. Musical daydream sequences visualise both the newly generated ambition of the children and their desire to realise it – the personal in fact becomes political.
Acknowledgments: Benjamin Poole, themoviewaffler.com
“Casablanca Beats’ music is itself excellent, with some mean beatboxing and dance sequences [but] there’s no revolutionary moment of success when the meanies are ousted and hip-hop declared godly. Music is like education in this – it’s all about the movement, not the destination”
John Bleasdale, cine-vue.com
Comments
I interesting insight into Moroccan youth culture – well made but with little narrative arc.
A bit different to a Catholic youth club!
There was a lot to take on board!
Some interesting scenes of contemporary Morocco and sometimes quite moving but as a film, rather ragged, plus – I don’t like rap!
Basically, a film for a young audience – to which, with its often incomprehensible lyrics and a seemingly uncharismatic lead character, it was almost impossible to relate.