Ajyal Film Festival 2023

All Films

House in the Fields (Tigmi Nigren)

Ajyal Competition - Ajyal Youth Film Festival 2017

Tala Hadid / Feature Documentary / Morocco, Qatar / 2017 / 86 min / Colour / DCP2K / In Amazigh / Arabic, English subtitles / Gulf Premiere
Rated: Parental guidance advised for viewers under the age of 15. Individuals under the age of 15 are not admitted into cinemas unless accompanied by an individual aged 18 or over.

Synopsis

High in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, life in an isolated rural Amazigh community has changed little over the past millennium. History is passed down the generations orally, transmitted by traditional bards and storytellers. Filmmaker Tala Hadid gained intimate access to this community, as well as their trust, in her quest to document their daily lives in visual form, thereby preserving a moment in a culture that is constantly faced with the rapid changes of the larger society in which it exists.

‘House in the Fields’ primarily follows two teenage sisters. In a nation that has recently made steps forward in providing equal rights for women, Khadija dreams of becoming a lawyer one day, while her elder sister Fatima has stopped attending school pending her upcoming marriage. A languid camera captures the sisters’ conversations as they discuss the possibilities and likelihoods of the future, as we wonder what the impact of social progress will be on centuries of embedded culture. Daily life in the village is mostly a matter of survival, with tending to crops and gathering food being a constant; how do these youngsters hopes for the future mesh with such an apparently simple existence?

About the Director

Tala Hadid’s work has screened at festivals around the world, including the Berlin International Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival and, among other venues, at the Museum of Modern Art and the Lincoln Center in New York City, the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, the Cinémathèque Française in Paris and the Photographer’s Gallery in London. Her films have received numerous awards, among them an Academy Award. Hadid’s ‘House in the Fields’ had its premiere at the Berlinale.

Credits

Director
Tala Hadid
Producer
Tala Hadid, Larbi Idmansour
Editor
Tala Hadid
Associate Producer
Lisa Kleiner Chanoff
Executive Producer
Joslyn Barnes, Sawsan Asfari, Maya Sanbar
Co-Producer
Umaru Embalo, Tommaso Cammarano
Music
Richard Horowitz
Cinematographer
Tala Hadid
Sales Company
Alpha Violet
Production Company
Kairos Films
Mixing
Jean-Guy Veran
Cast
Khadija El Gounad, Fatima El Gounad

Contacts

  • Production Company

    Kairos Films

    Company: 
    Kairos Films

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