<p>For the novelty in representing the issue of migration through an engaging and evocative "backward" journey.</p> <p><br>&nbsp;</p>

Synopsis

<p>When director Asmae El Moudir finds an old picture postcard of a mountain village among her mother’s belongings, it brings a remarkable story to life. The picture is of Zawia, the village in Morocco that her mother left as a child and never returned to. El Moudir decides to go to this remote place. The better El Moudir gets to know her and her family, the more she realizes how different her life would have been if her mother had stayed in the village. What begins as an intimate, personal journey in search of her family’s roots, evolves into a universal story about emancipation, migration, and the human longing to belong to a community.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

Biography and filmography

<p>Asmae El Moudir (director, editor and producer) has been working in cinema and audiovisual since 2010.  She has directed documentaries for SNRT, AlJazeera Documentary, BBC.&nbsp;</p> <p>She has directed three short fiction films and studied at La Fémis (French film school) where she produced <em>Thank God It’s Friday</em>, her most awarded film. In 2014, Asmae co-founded the cinematographic production company Insightfilms then in 2020 Asmae directed and produced her first feature film <em>The Postcard</em> selected at IDFA 2020, Visions du reel 2021and Durban IFF 2021.&nbsp;</p> <p>Her current project, <em>The Mother of All Lies</em>, is a Moroccan, German, and Qatar coproduction.&nbsp;</p>