Produced by Mohamed El Hassan El Chaoui and Btihaj El Merghadi, and distributed by Asma Graimiche, the film «La Marchandise» has already won the production award at the 22nd Tangier National Film Festival. It was also screened in the official competition of the 38th Alexandria Film Festival in Egypt from October 5 to 10
Fleeing suffering that leads to another is the heart of the story of the Moroccan film that highlights the suffering of a group of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, each armed with the hope to illegally reach the other side of the Atlantic, In order to improve their social situation and ensure better living conditions for their families. However, their journey has been fraught with pitfalls, they face the greed of human traffickers…
“Merchandising addresses the issue of illegal migration, a global phenomenon whose specificity varies from country to country, whether it takes place through the desert, the sea or even the border corridors. The main goal of illegal migrants is to change their lives, their social and economic situation to escape poverty.” He adds that “immigration is a process of seeking rights that a person has not found in their country of origin. It is a kind of risky escape and a dream of a better social and economic situation,” said film director Mohamed Nesrate.
The choice to make a film on the subject of illegal migration is of crucial importance for the film’s director, he said in a statement. Indeed, it is a topical issue that all societies are experiencing, because it is not limited only to the African continent, or even to South America. That’s a debate that all systems are talking about right now. They are trying to find solutions to reduce this phenomenon, regulate migration and reduce the proliferation of human trafficking, it reads.
The director, Mohamed Nesrate, stressed that the subject of the film «The Merchandise» is that of people looking for a better tomorrow, despite their conviction that their journey of clandestine migration is not going smoothly and as they had planned.
Migrants expect the worst! Falling into the hands of gangs and mafias trafficking in human beings, human organs… In short, everything that can be sold and traded, hence the title of the film «the merchandise», because for them, humans also have a market value and are therefore considered as merchandise, underlines the same source.
The script for this 90-minute work was written by Mohamed Nesrate while his filming was supervised by Luca Coassin. The first screening of the film will take place on November 21 in Casablanca, before being screened to the public on November 23, 2022, in cinemas across the Kingdom.