Remembering Marrakech

People Asleep and the Water as Well by Rotem Elkayam is the winner of the SFJFF43 Best Documentary Short Award

This collection of five short documentaries shows different aspects of life in the Mellah, the Jewish quarter of Marrakech, told mostly by Moroccan Muslims and the few Jews still living there. These films were created by a group of Israeli students from Sapir College and Moroccan students from Benguerir Polytechnic University working under the tutelage of renowned cinematographer Philippe Bellaiche (Advocate, SFJFF 2019). 

If Walls Could Speak

The house of the Corocs family was the most magnificent riad standing in the middle of the Mellah. Today, it stands on its last pillars and is in danger of collapsing. Hamid, an employee of the Jewish community, lives in the house and guards it.

Draw Me a Jew

The story of the Alliance School is full of memories, as well as the old and new voices of Jews and Muslims. We meet those who preserve the childhood memories of so many Jews to find out what remains the same and what has disappeared.

Guardians of Heritage

For centuries Jews were engaged in art and handicrafts, and skills were passed down from generation to generation. Now that the Jews have left Morocco, who will continue their unique craft heritage?

Minyan 

Yitzhak owns a hardware shop in the Mellah, and is a cantor in a small 400-year-old synagogue. Kobi, who recently left Israel, moved to the neighborhood with his wife and one-year-old daughter. Every week they struggle to get 10 Jewish men to the synagogue to form a minyan.

People Asleep and the Water as Well

Lahcen, a gravedigger in the Jewish cemetery in the heart of Marrakech, is a Muslim who has lived with Jews since childhood. Until the day he dies, Hassan will continue to open the cemetery to Jews from around the world.

North America Premiere