You'll grow to like it here

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's top 50 films of 2023

#45 :  Les Damnés Ne Pleurent Pas (The Damned Don't Cry)

Fyzal Boulifa explores the decisions forced on a poverty-stricken Moroccan family in this vivid and powerful drama of colonial tension. 

Another French language film - someone at The Guardian REALLY likes them.  And I for one can't wait to learn all about a poverty-stricken Moroccan family...

We follow Fatima-Zahra (Aicha Tebbae) and her teenage son Selim (Abdellah El Hajjouji) as they try to fashion a living under somewhat dubious and straitened circumstances, which are not overly explained at the beginning.  And then they are and you immediately have a lot more sympathy for them (although it really only poses more questions than it answers).  And basically they then go to Tangiers and stuff happens to them, most of which means that you quickly lose any sympathy you might have had for them.  And a lot of it makes absolutely no sense at all - and so it continues, until the film ends (in a way that I didn't overly understand).

Considering I took the title to mean something along the lines of "beggars can't be choosers", both of the main characters spend an awful lot of time looking gift horses in the mouth or being incredibly judgemental about each other - Fatima-Zahra in particular is an absolute nightmare.  Whenever things seem like they might be looking up for either of them, they either self-sabotage or ruin things for the other one - I can't say I'm overly up on the social or political situation, but it all feels a bit unnecessary and overly dramatic to me.

Within the context of two pretty unlikeable main characters, the acting is fine if unremarkable - I'd say Abdellah does the better job of the two given he's quite a tempestuous character and it would be easy to go over the top and he doesn't.  I'd also call out Moustapha Mokafih who plays a sympathetic character caught up with them, but no-one is dreadful and IMDB (there's no Wikipedia entry for the film, which is rare) suggests that it's the first film for most of the actors.  It's not a first film for Fyzal Boulifa the film's writer and director though - I'd say the camerawork is unflashy and competent and there are more locations used in the film than I was expecting.

But - it's basically a couple of unlikeable characters in unbelievable or incomprehensible (yes, I'm willing to accept this could well be my fault!) scenarios so I'm not sure any amount of acting or direction could rescue it for me.  It's not a dreadful film but I've no idea why anyone would want to watch it or why The Guardian were so fulsome in their praise for it.  But if you really want to, it's available to stream on BFIPlayer or to rent in all the usual locations - just don't say I didn't warn you.

#46 - An interesting film on an interesting subject
#44 - Watch this space again!