Hicham Lasri (born April 13, 1977) is a Moroccan comics artist, film director, novelist, producer and screenwriter. He has a special imprint on Moroccan cinema, as his films often deal with topics that are considered

taboo A taboo is a social group's ban, prohibition or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred or allowed only for certain people.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

in Moroccan society with great boldness.

Biography

Lasri was born on April 13, 1977, in Casablanca. He grew up in a family of five brothers and a sister. After obtaining a law degree, he changed orientation and begins a career of the playwright. He was a student of the screenwriter Emmanuelle Sardou and the filmmaker Hassan Leghzouli. Then he did an internship supervised by Sylvie Bailly, which allowed him to deepen his training on Sitcoms.

Career

He became the protégé of

Nabil Ayouch Nabil Ayouch (born 1 April 1969) is a Franco-Moroccan television and film director, producer, and writer. His films have been screened at international film festivals including the Cannes Film Festival and Montreal World Film Festival. Early li ...

and wrote his first screenplay in 2002 for one of his films, ''La légende d'Arhaz'', while also being the screenwriter of Lahcen Zinoun for ''La beauté éparpillée'' (2006). From 2004 to 2006, he worked as director of writing in Nabil Ayouch's company, Ali n’prod, he remained so between April 2006 and June 2007, for the "Film Industry" project. He worked also as an artistic director and took the opportunity to direct ''Le peuple de l’horloge'', an 81-minute fiction. In 2010, he co-produced ''Terminus des anges'' with

Narjiss Nejjar Narjiss Nejjar (born 1971) is a Moroccan filmmaker and screenwriter. Her film ''Les Yeux Secs'' (''Cry No More'') was screened at Cannes in 2003. Early life and career Nejjar was a student at ESRA in Paris, where she studied filmmaking. In 19 ...

and Mohamed Mouftakir. His first solo feature film was The end, produced by Lamia Chraibi and her company La Prod. In his second movie, ''C'est eux les chiens...'' (2013), he made the parallel between the Moroccan riots of 1981 and the

February 20 Movement February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years and 29 in leap years, with the 29th day being called the ''leap day''. February is the third and last month of meteorologi ...

. All in the form of a rather nervous

docufiction Docufiction (or docu-fiction) is the cinematographic combination of documentary film, documentary and fiction, this term often meaning narrative film. It is a film genre which attempts to capture reality such as it is (as direct cinema or ciné ...

. After being selected at

ACID An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...

in Cannes, the film was screened at 32 other international festivals between 2013 and 2015, including

FESPACO The Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (, or FESPACO) is a film festival in Burkina Faso, held biennially in Ouagadougou, where the organization is based. It accepts for competition only films by African filmmakers and chief ...

, Malmo and the

Carthage Film Festival Carthage Film Festival (Journées cinématographiques de Carthage, or JCC) is an annual film festival that takes place in Tunis, founded in 1966. It is also known by its Arabic title, ("Cinema Days of Carthage"). Initially biennial alternating ...

. Lasri's other films were also selected four times at the

Berlinale The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

between 2014 and 2018. His first Documentary, ''Nayda?,'' looks back at the 2000s Moroccan "Nayda" movement, likened to the Spanish Movida.

Personal life

In December 2023, alongside 50 other filmmakers, Lasri signed an open letter published in ''

Libération (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...

'' demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the

2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip The Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip is a major part of the Gaza war. Starting on 7 October 2023, immediately after the Hamas-led attack on Israel, Israel began bombing the Gaza Strip. On 13 October, Israel began ground operations in Gaz ...

, and for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid, and the release of hostages.

Works

Filmography

Films

Television

Web series

Novels

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Graphic novels

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lasri, Hicham 1977 births 20th-century Moroccan people 21st-century Moroccan people Living people Moroccan film directors Moroccan screenwriters People from Casablanca