04/23/2026
This month in our Director Highlight series, we’re showcasing the work of pioneer Moroccan director, Ahmed El-Maanouni.
Born in Casablanca, El-Maanouni began his career with “Alyam Alyam”, the first Moroccan feature film selected for the Cannes Film Festival in 1978.
His sophmore work, “Trances” was released in 1981 and won the Prix ESEC at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. The film would go on to leave a lasting mark on the history of musical documentaries and was presented by Martin Scorsese at the Cannes Film Festival – Cannes Classics 2007.
His later works, “Burnt Hearts” and “Fadma”, were also critically acclaimed and won many awards in international film festivals.
As a testament to his major contribution to world cinema, both “Alyam Alyam” and “Trances” were restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and became part of the prestigious The Criterion Collection and Eureka – The Masters of Cinema collection.
Through his numerous documentaries, he tirelessly explores Morocco’s contemporary history, questioning its fractures and continuities, while shedding light on the ways in which these dynamics feed and shape collective memory.
With this series, we invite you to discover, or revisit, a director whose cinema insisted on seeing clearly, remembering deeply, and refusing silence.
