Review of Casablanca Beats

I watched this at the Lansdown Film Club, where there is a post-film "bead voting" system, and I was the only person to put a bead in the bowl marked "Poor".  I didn't enjoy it much. I was bored, I dozed off sometimes, and I felt that it was shapeless and bad storytelling. I'm all in favour of films that leave the viewer to fill in or imagine some of what's left unsaid, but this felt like there were gaps in the narrative that had just been overlooked. 

There were some great young Moroccans who were learning to rap with a charismatic teacher at a cultural centre called Les Etoiles de Sidi Moumen - Sidi Moumen is a poor district of Casablanca . The young people were playing themselves, and the teacher is played by moody Moroccan actor Abdelilah Basbousi. There are some really great set-piece debates between the kids, notably about whether young women ought to dress "decently" in order to be respected. There's a big dance "fight" between the kids and some religious fundamentalists.

Ultimately though it was a disappointment. It feels a bit like it ought to have been a documentary, without the pretence of a plot, and with lots of interviews with the kids about why they felt that an American art form spoke to them as a young Moroccans.

Like I said, watched at Lansdown, and a testament to how bad the film was is that I managed to doze off even on the world's most uncomfortable chairs.