Bouchra

In 2 Lizards (2020), Moroccan American multimedia artist Meriem Bennani and Israeli American documentary filmmaker Orian Barki had already experimented with a combination of computer-animated anthropomorphic animals, improvised dialogue, and a photorealistic setting to capture the Covid era in New York. The popular web series was later acquired by MoMA and the Whitney.

Encouraged by this success, they refined the technique and with a small team went on to make their first feature-length animation, For Aicha, at the invitation of Fondazione Prada. Bouchra is its slightly expanded cinema version.

Bouchra’s title character, a cool New York jackal (and Bennani’s alter ego), makes a semi-autobiographical film about her relationship with her mother in Casablanca, who prefers to keep quiet about the fact that her daughter is a lesbian. The filmmakers include real phone conversations between Bennani and her mother, whose voice is performed by an actor. Thanks to this true-to-life source material, reality – sometimes painful, sometimes romantic and sexy – shows through the atmospheric animation on multiple levels.