Ali Zaoua

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ali Zaoua

Directed by	Nabil Ayouch
Produced by	Etienne Comar Jean Cottin Antoine Voituriez
Written by	Nabil Ayouch Nathalie Saugeon
Starring	Mounim Kbab Abdelhak Zhayra Hicham Moussoune Amal Ayouch Mustapha Hansali
Music by	Krishna Levy
Cinematography	Renaat Lambeets Vincent Mathias
Editing by	Jean-Robert Thomann
Distributed by	Arab Film Distribution (USA)
Release date(s)	September 8, 2000
Running time	90 mins.
Country	Morocco Tunisia France Belgium
Language	Arabic, French
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets is a 2000 Moroccan crime drama film that tells the story of some homeless boys. It was awarded in the 2000 Stockholm Film Festival and in the 2000 Amiens International Film Festival.

1 Plot
2 Miscellanea
3 Awards
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Kwita (Mounim Kbab), Omar (Mustapha Hansali) and Boubker (Hicham Moussoune) are distraught that gang members have killed Ali Zaoua (Abdelhak Zhayra), and they vow to bury him "like a prince." Kwita is the boy who masterminds the idea, but his resolve doesn't always match his courage, so it's Omar who works his way into Ali's old house, where Ali's mother (Amal Ayouch) works as a prostitute. Just finished with a customer, she says that Ali lied when he claimed she'd wanted "to sell his eyes" for profit. More truths are revealed, which help explain Ali's obsession with becoming a sailor and living on an island far from Casablanca.

Before the trio's quest is over, Kwita meets a girl he falls for and visits a cemetery where his lack of religious training ("I went to a mosque once") is criticized; Omar briefly returns to his former gang, which instigated Ali's murder; and Boubker -- the smallest and most vulnerable of the three -- threatens to kill himself but recovers his sense of self and helps an old fisherman (Mohamed Majd) on his boat.