Derb Moulay Chrif Wins Prize

Hassan Benjelloun’s latest movie, Derb Moulay Chrif (La Chambre Noire/The Black Room), has won second place in Africa’s biggest film competition, Fespaco 2005, which was held this year in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The film is based on Jaouad Mdidech’s autobiographical book about the quasi-systematic torture of leftist students and activists in 1970s Morocco. (Top prize was taken by Drum, directed by Zola Maseko and starring Taye Diggs.) An interview with Derb Moulay Chrif‘s Hanane Ibrahim appears here. Despite direct criticism of the late king’s regime, the movie received some state funds, and was shown in theatres across the country.