In 1947, a destitute peasant accidentally finds a sum of money and is confronted with the mirage of unattainable wealth. In this 1979 film, Ahmed Bouanani subverts morality play conventions, making the poverty of Moroccans as the starting point for a critique of their condition under colonial rule. The editing—through association and narrative breaks—and the narrative draw on the forms and imagination of popular oral culture, at times even verging on surrealism and the avant-garde. The enduring legacy of Mirage also lies in this freedom: to make a people, their language, and their history the very material that Moroccan cinema must strive to reclaim and reinvent. Jérome Baron
Restored print
SUN 22 > 4:00 PM
WED 25 > 8:45 PM
