Casablanca Beats: An uplifting tale about how the power of music can drive social change

The first Moroccan Palme d’Or contender since Jacques Séverac’s 1962 drama, Children of the Sun, Nabil Ayouch’s new effort Casablanca Beats was certainly one of the most surprising titles of this year’s Cannes Film Festival (6-17 July 2021). After the five interconnected stories set in Casablanca and the Atlas Mountains told in Razzia (2017), Ayouch presented his new foray into the big screen, a musical film co-produced by Casablanca-based firm Ali n’ Productions alongside French outfits Les Films du Nouveau Monde and Unité.

The story, penned by the director himself, takes place in 2014 and follows Anas (Anas Basbousi, here essentially portraying himself), a thirty-something former rapper who accepts a music teaching gig in a cultural centre and kicks off an innovative educational programme called “Positive School of Hip Hop”. Interestingly, most of the film was shot at Les Etoiles de Sidi Moumen, a real cultural centre co-founded by Ayouch himself in Casablanca a few years ago, further proving the helmer’s deep connections with the story and its characters.

From his very first lesson, charismatic Anas tries to teach his young students the importance of rap and hip hop cultures as artistic tools to express their ideas peacefully, discouraging them from mimicking the worst American gangsta rap. The first lessons, however, leave the students unsettled. Anas does not limit himself to his teaching duties but tries to dig deep into his students’ inner conflicts, helping them to grow up as self-aware individuals. The Positive School of Hip Hop’s programme should prepare them to be part of a new society ready to change the country for the better. Nevertheless, Anas’ gritty, provocative attitude puts himself and his job in a very risky position, causing the anger of the student’s most conservative relatives and raising the concerns of the school’s principal.

Despite this premise, Ayouch’s feature is not just a coming-of-age drama exploring complex socio-political themes. It is, first and foremost, a musical film, where every song is tasked to dissect a specific issue involving Moroccan youth and, more broadly, Muslim society.

In one of the film’s sequences, for instance, we follow a student (nicknamed “Imam” and played by Ismail Elfallahi) who is much more devout than his classmates and fears to be radicalised. His change of heart, staged through one of the musical interludes,  is plain to see on screen. It  comes after an unpleasant talk he has with some other observants, who claim the validity of false verses from the Quran to justify their most orthodox views.

Ayouch’s feature is a musical film, where every song is tasked to dissect a specific issue involving Moroccan youth and, more broadly, Muslim society

Throughout the picture, Anas and his students tackle a variety of timely topics, such as patriarchal oppression, the use of hijab, the condition of women, gender equality and societal judgement.

Despite the presence of so many hot topics, the final result is not an overambitious hodgepodge. On the contrary, Ayouch’s plurality of voices makes crystal clear how Moroccan society is deeply fractured – even among its youngest members – in more or less liberal, conservative, secular and religious segments. These contrasting positions are explored through heated discussions taking place inside the classroom, but especially through the musical interludes.

Commendably, most of them emerge organically, perhaps favoured by the natural context offered by the music lessons and the rehearsals held prior to the student’s final concert. Except for a couple of circumstances – for instance, in one scene a young girl suddenly performs her cri de cœur and rebels to her possessive brother, while standing on railway tracks – the mise en scène defies the musicals’ annoying cliché of performers singing and dancing out of the blue.

The cinematography, lensed by DoPs Amine Messadi and Virgine Surdej, finds a good balance by combining a no frills, documentary-like approach which ultimately keeps the viewers grounded to Morocco’s contemporary reality, with more static, staged sequences, such as the ones depicting Anas’ pensive moments of solitude, during which he reflects on his course of action while he smokes a cigarette and pets his dog.

The closure of the narrative arc is spot on and leaves a much-needed message of hope for a troubled country, luckily avoiding the clichés of empowerment or other rhetorical trappings usually found in other advocacy-based tales. On the whole, Casablanca Beats is a wake-up call to fight for freedom and human rights, an ode to the healing power of music and, without doubt, a very entertaining picture.

On the one hand, Ayouch’s musical is likely to please a mainstream audience thanks to its catchy songs, the presence of young, charismatic leads and a rather linear plot. On the other hand, it can also attract more demanding viewers, who will enjoy a fair character development, the absence of sugar-coating in the film’s dialogues and its political commitment.

Davide Abbatescianni is an Italian Film Critic and Journalist based in Cork, Ireland. 

Follow him on Twitter: @dabbatescianni