The film explores a 1981 massacre in Casablanca through interviews and interactions with the director’s family and former neighbours.
Morocco has officially chosen The Mother Of All Lies, directed by Asmae El Moudir, as its submission for the Best International Feature category at the 2024 Oscars. This decision follows the film’s world premiere at Cannes earlier this year.
The Mother Of All Lies is a hybrid documentary influenced by the historic bread riots that transpired in El Moudir’s hometown of Casablanca in 1981. The film not only made waves at Cannes but also clinched the coveted L’Oeil d’Or (Golden Eye) prize for Best Documentary, sharing this honour with Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters, which serves as Tunisia’s submission for the Oscars this year.
In The Mother of All Lies, El Moudir explores her family’s history and the stories and lies told surrounding the upheaval and violence of the 1981 Bread Riots in Casablanca. With no archive footage or even photographs, to draw on, she painstakingly recreates, from memory, her family’s old apartment and the old Casablanca neighbourhood in the form of a miniature set on a soundstage, with figurines to represent her family members.
The film is directed, written, produced and edited by El Moudir. Egypt’s Marc Lotfy contributed as a co-producer through his Fig Leaf Studios company.
The film’s international sales is handled by Vienna-based Autlook Filmsales.
The deadline for submissions to the Best International Feature Film category is October 2. The list of nominees will be unveiled on December 21, followed by the announcement of the final nominees on January 23, leading up to the grand ceremony slated for March 10, 2024.
