44, or Tales of the Night (1981, dir. Moumen Smihi) 110min

*New 35mm print!*

Followed by "Afterimage" conversation with Moumen Smihi and Peter Limbrick.

Shot in exceptionally beautiful widescreen images by Pierre Lhomme, 44 presents a fresco of Morocco’s 44 years of colonization as a protectorate of France. With the sweep of Miklos Jansco’s historical films and a mise-en-scène that owes much to Visconti’s The Leopard, 44 tries to capture the sumptiousness and misery of a religious family from Fes and an impoverished family in Chaouen, within a society fighting for its independence. Smihi draws equally on the traditions of the Arabian Nights tales and the picaresque narratives of James Joyce in order to present multiple points of view on a complex and mobile national history.

--Peter Limbrick.

• Written by Smihi. Photographed by Pierre Lhomme, Abdelkrim Darkaoui. With Pierre Clémenti, Marie-France Pisier, Abdelsam Farawi, Christine Pascal. (110 mins, In French and Arabic with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Centre Cinématographique Marocain)

This film is part of the series, Moumen Smihi: Poet of Tangier, at the PFA October 10-27.