Renault 12 - Cinéma Arabe

Playwright and theater director Mohamed El Khatib often includes elements from reality in his plays. He used the same technique for his film debut, a humoristic montage of recordings, observations and staged scenes.

His tale starts with the death of his mother and a phone call from his uncle, who urges him to come to Morocco to claim his part of the inheritance. His uncle insists that El Khatib must make the trip from Orléans to the Rif Mountains in his father’s old Renault 12. The film becomes a road movie, in which El Khatib investigates his own history (and that of many second-generation migrants) through a series of encounters, and finally discovers the actual goal of his journey.