Everybody Loves Touda
For generations in Morocco there have been ‘shikhats’, women who sing about life and all the injustices done to women. Single mother Touda dreams of a career as a professional shikhat, if only to be able to offer more to her deaf-mute son Yassine. She performs in the bars and clubs of the provincial town where she lives, but finds that her audience has very little respect for her. She thinks she will do better in a big city, so she decides to try her luck in Casablanca. New challenges await her there.
In Moroccan patriarchal society, women do not often make themselves heard. The shikhat are an exception, although they do not have it easy either, director Nabil Ayouch shows in his tenth feature film. Lead actress Nisrin Erradi apprenticed for a year and a half with professional shikhats to play the role of Touda with conviction.
