''Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets'' is a 2000 Moroccan crime drama film that tells the story of several homeless boys living in

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

. It was awarded in the 2000

Stockholm Film Festival The Stockholm International Film Festival ( sv, Stockholms filmfestival, italic=no) is an annual film festival held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was launched in 1990 and has been held every year since then during the second half of November. The w ...

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF; french: le Festival des Films du Monde) was one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF (although the Toronto Internat ...

and in the 2000 Amiens International Film Festival.

Plot

Against a background of dockside poverty in Casablanca, populated by a loose gang of over 20 homeless and uneducated male youths under 15, Kwita ( Maunim Kbab), Omar ( Mustapha Hansali), Boubker ( Hicham Moussaune) and Ali Zaoua ( Abdelhak Zhayra) leave the group becoming 4 independents. Ali, with plans of becoming a cabin boy on a ship, leads this exodus from the gang — led by Dib (

Saïd Taghmaoui Saïd Taghmaoui (born 19 July 1973) is a French-American actor and screenwriter. One of his major screen roles was that of Saïd in the 1995 French film ''La Haine'', directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. Taghmaoui has also appeared in a number of En ...

). Early in the film and almost accidentally, Ali is killed by members of the gang. His 3 outsider friends decide to give him a proper funeral. Kwita is treated badly by military, by police and by well-off children because he is "not devout", cannot pray, is unclean, smells like dead meat and is a glue sniffer, and Omar attempts to return to Dib's gang. Boubker, the smallest and most irrepressibly buoyant of the boys, temporarily despairs, but recovers. Against all odds, the three boys manage to arrange Ali's funeral to pay respect to their friend in the main story of the film.

Awards

* Bronze Horse, 2000

* Audience Award, 2000 Amiens International Film Festival * Golden Crow Pheasant Award, 2001

International Film Festival of Kerala The International Film Festival of Kerala (abbreviated as IFFK) is a film festival held annually in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, India. This film festival started in 1996 and is hosted by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy ...

Importance and role of rituals depicted

''Ali Zaoua'' is a Moroccan film which reflects the pain of poverty, homelessness, child abuse and prostitution in Moroccan society. The film has been described as

magical realism Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to: * Magical (horse) (foaled 2015), Irish Thoroughbred racehorse * "Magical" (song), released in 1985 by John Parr * '' Magical: Disney's New Nighttime Spectacular of Magical Celebrations'', ...

, in the sense of how the stark reality of the children’s lives interweaves with their rich fantasy life. The contrast between real life and fantasy life shows the strong part of their beliefs. In their feeling and practice they are very different from each other. In this film Ali, Kwita, Omar and Boubker are street kids. The daily dose of glue sniffing represents their only escape from reality. Ali wants to become a sailor - when he was living with his mother, a prostitute, he used to listen to a fairy tale about the sailor who discovered the miracle island with two suns. Instead of finding his island in the dream, Ali and his friends are confronted with Dib’s gang. Matters are getting serious; the four kids separated themselves from Dib’s gang. As a result, Ali Zaoua is killed by Dib’s gang when he is hit by a stone. Omar and Baker wanted to bury him as king but circumstances do not support them.Chalk Dreams: The Use of Fantasy as a Method of Rethinking Life in Ali Zaoua
Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse, Tiffany M. Johnson, 2012, Vol. 4 No. 07, pg. 1/2

Bibliography

The New York Times, Dave Kehr, 16 April 2003
Ali Zaoua, prince de la rue (2000)
Cinemagazine, Charlotte Visser , Access date: 31 May 2022

(Träume des Elends), Schnitt.de, Mark Stöhr, 2012

References

External links

* * 2000 films 2000s Arabic-language films 2000 crime drama films Moroccan drama films {{FESPACO Bronze Stallion of Yennenga, state=expanded