Ouarzazate

In this offering from director Ali Essafi, the film culture surrounding Ouarzazate, Morocco is skewered, revealing the cynicism and cluelessness of producers and international film moguls fascinated by the exotic local yet completely unaware of the local culture. This bitingly comic documentary is a portrait of a small Moroccan town whose economy is driven by the many movie crews drawn by its exotic desert scenery. Turning his camera on crabby casting directors for an Italian biblical epic, would-be extras in Astérix et Obélix and an old local hand who once carried Pasolini’s bags, Essafi cannily skewers the international film industry and the disparity between movie magic and economic reality.