A scene from Playground Chronicles
Playground Chronicles, the story of a Moroccan family in a suburb of Paris, set in 1980s, will have its world premiere in the ‘Arab Feature Narrative Competition’ at Doha Tribeca Film Festival, scheduled from November 17 to 24.
Director Brahim Fritah is very excited as it is his first feature film, at the end of eight years’ toil.
“It would be a great opportunity for me and the film to have a great public exposure in an international film festival,” he told Gulf Times.
The biographical film has kids as main characters.
“In July 2010, we were expecting to shoot the film, after six weeks of hard preparations. Everything was ready, but one week before the first day of shooting the bank we worked with, cancelled the agreement with the production company. This was very hard for everyone involved in the film. We decided to postpone the shooting, but without any assurance that we will find another bank ready to make it.
“But Futurikon, the production company never let the project down, and everybody from the artistic crew and the production company tried their best to create the best opportunities to make the film.”
So one year later, after long term work on the script, location and with the young actors, who had grown by this time, Fritah and his team finally managed to mobilise funds to make the film.
The film portrays 10-year-old Fritah becoming aware of the complexities of the world around him.
By setting the simple trials and jubilations of youth against a backdrop of social turmoil, the director imagines what childhood treasures his character will take with him into the future.
“Though there is not enough support for filmmakers in the region now, I think there will be more in future. But for me, the most important thing is the quality of the point of view and the sensitivity in a film.”