The Postcard (2020)
By: Asmae El Moudir
When director Asmae El Moudir finds an old picture postcard of a mountain village among her mother's belongings, it brings a remarkable story to life. The picture is of Zawia, the village in Morocco that her mother left as a child and never returned to.
El Moudir decides to go to this remote place. In Zawia, where time seems to have stood still, she embarks on a quest into her mother's past, and thereby her own. She connects on a personal level with women and girls in the village; one of the young girls is Oum Elaid. The better El Moudir gets to know her and her family, the more she realizes how different her life would have been if her mother had stayed in the village. What begins as an intimate, personal journey in search of her family's roots, evolves into a universal story about emancipation, migration, and the human longing to belong to a community.
Film Crew
Director: Asmae El Moudir
Executive producer Asmae El Moudir (InsightFILMS)
Cinematography Amine Belhouchat
Merouane Tiriri
Asmae El Moudir
Editing Maria Mocpat
Commissioning Editor Muhammad Refaat
Sound Mohamed Mouilid
Sound Design Regis Cornudet
Festivals & Awards
IDFA, International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam, 2020
El Gouna Film Festival, Egypt, 2020
DOK. Leipzig, 2020
Festival Les Écrans Documentaires, 2020
Ajyal Film Festival, Doha Film Institute, 2020