Atlas Close-Ups
THE FIELD
Synopsis
In a vast cornfield on the outskirts of a Moroccan village, five characters, each prey to their own fears, cross paths. Nine-year-old Bilal, mischievous and daring, is pursued by a farmer after stealing a melon. He hides, terrified by the scarecrows he mistakes for his pursuer. After his sheep causes trouble in the village, Brahim, a 60-year-old villager, tries to turn himself in but backs down in the face of authority. Taja, 75, sells her jewelry to pay for having her traditional tattoos removed, fearing divine punishment. Meanwhile, Dalila and Omar, in love, hide from the eyes of Dalila's family, fighting off fears of an honor killing. As their paths cross one by one, the cornfield becomes a place of confrontation and reconciliation, culminating in a wedding celebration. Taja offers her jewels as a gift to the young lovers, sealing their fates.
Director’s statement
Through childhood memories, I explore the theme of fear rooted in a broader socio-political reality. The scarecrow symbolizes the imaginary monsters I confronted as a child, and the ways in which fear is erected as a mode of education. During the Arab Spring, I saw the destruction of statues of Arab dictators, which turned out to be hollow but capable of maintaining collective fear.
With these various tracks, I propose full immersion in human experiences in a cornfield. I favor an approach to sound design that is saturated with natural noises and without music, to capture the anguish of the characters. Visual minimalism, using long takes, expands time and intensifies fear, while the landscape evolves from morning light to afternoon calm, underlining the tension between the beauty of nature and the depth of human anguish.
Biographies
Mohamed Bouhari worked as a self-trained journalist in Niger before attending the Insas Film School in Brussels in 2005. His first short film, Abandon de poste (2010), was selected for the Venice International Film Festival, as well as some 50 other festivals around the world. Since then, his professional life has been divided between Belgium and Morocco, where he has coached actors for several films and series. He has directed documentaries and short films, including Jeans (2021) and Story (2022), both of which have won multiple awards. Story was selected for Academy Award-qualifying festivals in Bulgaria and the United States.
Born in Fez, Morocco, Imad Benomar studied marketing and management before entering the film industry, first as an award-winning director and then as a producer. He attended ESAV in Marrakech, where he worked on several film projects and gained solid experience. Mentored by Alaa Eddine Aljem, he worked with Le Moindre Geste and Images du Sud. In 2023, he joined Images du Sud as a producer.
