''Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets'' is a 2000 Moroccan crime drama film that tells the story of several homeless boys living in
Casablanca
Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...
Against a background of dockside poverty in Casablanca, populated by a loose gang of over 20 homeless and uneducated male youths under 15, Kwita ( Maunim Kbab), Omar ( Mustapha Hansali), Boubker ( Hicham Moussaune) and Ali Zaoua ( Abdelhak Zhayra) leave the group becoming 4 independents. Ali, with plans of becoming a cabin boy on a ship, leads this exodus from the gang — led by Dib (
Saïd Taghmaoui
Saïd Taghmaoui (; born 19 July 1973) is a French actor. One of his major screen roles was that of Saïd in the 1995 French film '' La Haine'', directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. Taghmaoui has also appeared in a number of English-language films, wi ...
). Early in the film and almost accidentally, Ali is killed by members of the gang. His 3 outsider friends decide to give him a proper funeral. Kwita is treated badly by military, by police and by well-off children because he is "not devout", cannot pray, is unclean, smells like dead meat and is a glue sniffer, and Omar attempts to return to Dib's gang. Boubker, the smallest and most irrepressibly buoyant of the boys, temporarily despairs, but recovers. Against all odds, the three boys manage to arrange Ali's funeral to pay respect to their friend in the main story of the film.
International Film Festival of Kerala
The International Film Festival of Kerala (abbreviated as IFFK) is a film festival held annually in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, India. This film festival started in 1996 and is hosted by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy ...
Importance and role of rituals depicted
''Ali Zaoua'' is a Moroccan film which reflects the pain of poverty, homelessness, child abuse and prostitution in Moroccan society. The film has been described as
magical realism
Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical rea ...
, in the sense of how the stark reality of the children’s lives interweaves with their rich fantasy life. The contrast between real life and fantasy life shows the strong part of their beliefs. In their feeling and practice they are very different from each other. In this film Ali, Kwita, Omar and Boubker are street kids. The daily dose of glue sniffing represents their only escape from reality. Ali wants to become a sailor - when he was living with his mother, a prostitute, he used to listen to a fairy tale about the sailor who discovered the miracle island with two suns. Instead of finding his island in the dream, Ali and his friends are confronted with Dib’s gang. Matters are getting serious; the four kids separated themselves from Dib’s gang. As a result, Ali Zaoua is killed by Dib’s gang when he is hit by a stone. Omar and Baker wanted to bury him as king but circumstances do not support them.Chalk Dreams: The Use of Fantasy as a Method of Rethinking Life in Ali Zaoua Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse, Tiffany M. Johnson, 2012, Vol. 4 No. 07, pg. 1/2
Bibliography
The New York Times, Dave Kehr, 16 April 2003
Ali Zaoua, prince de la rue (2000) Cinemagazine, Charlotte Visser , Access date: 31 May 2022
(Träume des Elends), Schnitt.de, Mark Stöhr, 2012