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El Idrissi Tarik , Rif 1958-59: Briser le silence (Rif 1958-59, Break the silence). 2015. Morocco. Moroccan Arabic with English, French, and Spanish subtitles. 1 hour 16 min. Distributed by Sofia Aghilas. No price reported. Available on YouTube.
Film Review
DOCUMENTARY
Rif 1958-59: Briser le silence (Rif 1958-59, Break the silence) is one of the first documentaries to be made about the 1958-59 bloody repression of the Riffian people (the inhabitants of the Rif region in northern Morocco) by the Moroccan military. Tarik El Idrissi's second documentary, in collaboration with Spanish screenwriter Javier Rada, spotlights an event that was up until the 2000s a taboo subject in Morocco and has only recently begun to enter public awareness. The film's main goal is to expose the secrecy that surrounded the systematic and intentional repression of the Riffian people by the Moroccan military under King Hassan II in the years immediately following Moroccan independence. Using the testimonies of numerous interviewed victims, El Idrissi documents the tactics employed by King Hassan II to suppress any dissention or political uprising in Morocco, beginning shortly after independence in 1956. The Rif region, known for its poverty, unemployment and arid landscape which make farming difficult (made famous in the novel, Le Pain...