1981 - Morocco – The month of Ramadan. With her seven-year-old son, Mehdi, Amina moves in with her father-in-law, Ahmed. Mehdi’s father is in prison but the boy believes that he has gone to work in France: his mother and grandfather maintain this illusion for his sake. At school, Mehdi has the privileged task of looking after the teacher’s chair. His relationship with the village, his friends and the world revolves around this object.
| Original Title | Mille mois - Alf Chahr | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German Title | Mille mois | ||||||
| French Title | Mille mois | ||||||
| Other Titles | A Tousand Months | ||||||
| Directed by | Faouzi Bensaidi | ||||||
| Country | Morocco | ||||||
| Available Formats | 35mm | ||||||
| Screenplay | Faouzi Bensaidi | ||||||
| Film Editing | Sandrine Deegen | ||||||
| Cinematography | Antoine Héberlé | ||||||
| Sound | Patrice Mendez, Franco Piscopo | ||||||
| Décors | Naima Bouanani, Véronique Melery | ||||||
| Costumes | Emma Bellocq | ||||||
| Production | Gloria Films, Agora Films, Entre Chien et Loup | ||||||
| Runtime | 124 Min. | ||||||
| Language | Arabisch/d/f oder i | ||||||
| Actors |
|
Prix Le Premier Regard et Prix de la Jeunesse, Cannes 2003; Prix spécial du Jury, Namur 2003; Prix spécial du jury, Alexandrie 2003; Prix FICC et Mention Spéciale du Jury Oecuménique, Fribourg 2004; Grosser Jurypreis für den besten Spielfilm, Miami International Film Festival 2004
«Faouzi Bensaidi livre un premier long-métrage d'une étonnante maturité esthétique.» L'Express
«Das ist ein Film, der uns aufnimmt und mit sich trägt: Nehmen wir die Einladung zum Spaziergang an, sie ist es wert.»
Africulture
The Hollywood Reporter (Michael Rechtshaffen):
"Like the visually poetic works of the Iranian Makhmalbaf filmmaking family, the picture has a lot to say about politics, religion and social injustice, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for generous amounts of gently observed satire".
Variety (Deborah Young):
"… a feature debut of unusual sophistication and emotional resonance (…) brings a wisp of humor to a tale pleasingly grounded in authentic feelings".
The New York Times (Elvis Mitchell):
“The imagery in A THOUSAND MONTHS has a plaintive found-art beauty that Faouzi Bensaidi, the director, uses as an elegant contradiction to the deftly woven story lines. […] Impressively structured melodrama.”
INDIEWIRE (Howard Feinstein):
"Another good movie is "A Thousand Months," Faouzi Bensaidi's tragicomic coming-of-age tale of a boy surrounded by familial and political upheaval in a Moroccan village. This is an important work: A new wave is emerging from the Maghreb, Africa north".
Texts as well as any visual and audio material on the website of the trigon-film foundation are intended for reporting on the respective film or the promotion of the theatrical release. The material is available free of charge only for reporting on the respective film or its promotion. Any other usage is forbidden through copyright and has to be discussed with trigon-film. Passing on the material to a third party in return for payment or for free is strictly prohibited. The copyright reference © trigon-film.org is mandatory. By using our material you accept our copyright regulations!
