The Mother of All Lies

There is much that 34-year-old Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir does not know about her family history. Her questions meet a wall of silence, because the past is simply not talked about. Where are the family photos, for instance, she wants to know. Together with her father, she decides to unravel the past in an unusual way: they build a detailed model of the Casablanca neighbourhood where that past took place, including little dolls representing the residents of the time.

Using these dolls, little by little, it becomes clear what happened, family, neighbours and even her dominant but extremely taciturn grandmother begin to talk. The past has painful episodes that can be traced back to the Bread Riots of 1981, when the Moroccan government decided to drastically increase the prices of basic necessities such as bread. The riots that followed cost the lives of many. Among others, awarded at the last Cannes Film Festival.