Saad Chraibi
Morocco/2000/35mm/110 min
Filmmaker attending
United States Premiere

As local farmers in a small Moroccan village suffer from drought, the occupying French lieutenant enjoys a fruitful garden, green lawn, and several water pumps sent from France. In desperation, the villagers conspire to explode the pumps, and employ the lieutenant's servant, Mah, to do it. Courting the lieutenant's housemaid, Menna, Mah wishes for a simple home life, and reluctantly complies. Unwittingly, he becomes a tool for the resistance movement gaining force throughout the country. The destruction of the pumps frees water to the town, but events lead to a violent clash between nationalists, local residents, and the French military. When the lieutenant's wife, Florence, steps in to help Menna visit Mah in jail, the film depicts a complexity of personal relationships amidst hostile political realities. At last, the personal tragedy of one man's sacrifice is set against political victory, as Morocco gains independence from French rule. Warm photography accentuates sympathetic characters and sun baked earth, while ghostly shafts of light illumine the night in this heightened drama.