Films in shooting or post-production
BEHIND THE PALM TREES
Synopsis
In Tangier, Mehdi leads an exemplary life with his family and Selma, his new girlfriend. For the young couple, everything is going swimmingly until Mehdi meets Marie, a young French woman with a social life of her own. In her, Mehdi sees the promise of a different future and social success.
Son Doan
Cristel Dewynter
Sara Giraudeau, Driss Ramdi, Nadia Kounda, Carole Bouquet, Olivier Rabourdin
Tessalit Productions (France)
Jean Bréhat
Furyo Films (France)
Emma Binet
Agora Films (Morocco)
Souad Lamriki
Novak Prod (Belgium)
Olivier Dubois
The Bureau (United Kingdom)
Tristan Goligher
Director’s statement
In Tangier, love affairs are made and unmade to the rhythm of travel, and behind them, a “grand history” is played out, one that tells of the relations of domination that persist between France and Morocco.Through this film, I want to tell the story of two loves that will be consumed by cultural, economic, and social differences: Marie, the French woman, the object of fantasy and the desire for elsewhere; and Selma, the woman whose love cannot compete with the status of a foreigner. It's a film that raises the question of equality within a couple. I want to examine the political dimension of love and the way in which family, and society in general, infiltrates the intimate.
Biographies
Meryem Benm'Barek was born in Rabat and grew up in Morocco, France, and Belgium. In 2010, she entered the directing stream at Insas in Brussels, where she directed several short films, including Jennah (2014), which was selected for several international festivals and shortlisted for the 2015 Academy Awards. In 2018, Sofia, her first feature-length film, won the Best Screenplay Award in the Un Certain Regard section of the Festival de Cannes before going on to win several international awards.
Emma Binet worked for Chi-Fou-Mi and UBBA, then alongside Jean Bréhat at 3B Productions for nearly six years. In 2020, she co-founded the independent production company Furyo Films with Charles Meresse and Adrien Barrouillet. The company produces short and feature films, with a view to supporting new directors working on topical societal themes. Attentive to the international dimension of their films, they work closely with European and international partners.
