FILM SCREENINGS

Death for Sale

2011. Morocco/Belgium/France. Directed by Faouzi Bensaïdi. With Fehd Benchemsi, Fouad Labiad, Mouhcine Malzi, Imane Elmechrafi, Faouzi Bensaïdi. In the provincial Moroccan city of Tetouan, three young friends—common thugs in the eyes of many, hopelessly unemployed street dwellers to others—decide to rob a jewelry store. Bensaïdi uses a noir motif as a poetic narrative guise for an incisive, intricate portrayal of an economically marginalized city abandoned to fend for itself between smugglers and corrupt officials, extremism and dejection. Bensaïdi’s third feature, another remarkable feat in a singularly versatile filmography, reminds us how uncannily cinema can mirror the real world. In Arabic; English subtitles. 117 min.