Reviewed by Sunchica Unevska
Towards: “The Blue Caftan”, director: Maryam Touzani, writers: Maryam Touzani and Nabil Ayouch, cast: Lubna Azabal, Saleh Bakri, Ayoub Missioui, photography: Virginie Surdej, France/Morocco/Belgium/Denmark 2022
The mysterious play of the caftan, which is passed down from mother to daughter
The film “The Blue Caftan” by Maryam Touzani from Morocco was one of the most successful in this year's race for the best Arab film, awards for which are decided by an international jury made up of eminent film critics from all over the world, this year as many as 193 from 72 countries. Out of nine awards, “The Blue Caftan” won three, namely for the best screenplay by Maryam Tuzani and Nabil Ayouch, for the best photography by Virginie Surdej and for the best female role, for the outstanding Lubna Azabal. The awards were presented for the seventh time and announced during the Cannes Film Festival. And, well deserved, because “The Blue Caftan” is a truly special film.
In it, Maryam Touzani, although it is her second feature film, manages to talk about many topics, and almost without words, at least not directly, but therefore creates an exceptional atmosphere that is packed with many emotions, with such sensuality and subtlety, with such an inner experience, with such sensuality that it is incredible. The married couple Mina and Halim have a tailor's shop full of beautiful materials, which Halim makes by hand and to which they both have a special relationship. They don’t see the materials, such as silk, caftan, georgette, only as clothes, but treat them with piety, following what the material itself requires, that is, it should not be tight, it should not stick to the body, it shouldn’t be turned into something it is not, on the contrary, its true lines, its natural fall and movement, should always be followed in order to make the best of it.
The materials are sacred to them, the craftsmanship that is so subtle, delicate and precise is something that cannot be compared with anything. “The caftan, says Halim, should outlive its owner, it is inherited from mother to daughter.” They invest a lot in them and therefore are late with deliveries, unable to accept the new belief of customers that “today there is no difference between machine-made and hand-made”.
Touzani succeeds in making a fantastic metaphor out of this delicate relationship to materials, telling the story of love, of connection, of passion, of longing, of that true purity and generosity, of faith in the good and the beautiful, of life's essences. Because Mina and Halim are everything, just not an ordinary couple. They have been together for 25 years, and even though Halim is gay, their connection is something that fascinates, especially the way they work, the way the unspoken is so strong and loud, and yet at times irrelevant... If you follow the right path, how that of the materials that slide so perfectly through their hands, you will see that nothing in life, in fact, is black and white. Mina and Halim have a perfect understanding, they love each other's uniqueness so much, they love the way they understand and enjoy things, which is so essential despite the reality, despite the urges that are impossible to stop. It's the same with materials, it's the same with everything, the right need will always find its way, because it's inevitable. But that will not disturb the essential thing that binds Mina and Halim, although turbulence is on the horizon when Youssef enters the story.
Young Youssef will sign up as an assistant, which they need because Mina and Halim are increasingly unable to respond to customer orders, especially since Mina is sick and Halim can't work except with his calligraphic handiwork. He was taught that way by his father, who was the master and who not only taught him the craft and how to embroider those materials with their characteristic patterns, but also passed on to him the attitude towards them, towards their true nature, the art of creation, but also the art of living. Because, it is also the inviolable rule or lesson of life, that nothing by force or unnatural can give wholeness. But, Youssef's presence will suddenly disrupt the everyday, or quite the opposite, will stir repressed passions, causing unspoken things to begin to become visible. At first, Mina will not be happy with it, and will even try to portray things as different from what they are, persuading Youssef to steal, until she herself faces her conscience and accepts the inevitable.
She is really different, and she has always been like that, a real rock, who gave the fragile Halim exactly what he needed, stability and security. And he loves her for it, but the nature of things inexorably takes its course. By some tacit agreement, he has own life that he leads hidden in the séances in the baths, but with the presence of Youssef, it seems that delicate veil will be less and less able to protect the illusion so carefully built. And while Mina faces many challenges, fighting the incurable disease, the film alternates with extraordinary moments, moments of her liberation and the need to vent from that constantly imposed restraint, suddenly Mina knows how to be different, the way she has always been, quirky, open, honest, exalted, less and brash, but original. She always knew the real things, but it was the substance and the greatness that always stood above all. When her husband finally tells her the unspoken, that he fought his urges, that he never wanted to stain her face, she will answer him that she has never seen a purer and nobler man.
The way Touzani manages to lead and capture this atmosphere, an atmosphere of passion, of such strong feelings, of such longing, pain and pride, of real love and belonging, but also of truth, is truly amazing. There are not even any touches in the film, but therefore those delicate touches of the material create incredible sensuality, such a rush of emotions and even eroticism. It is a film that is truly permeated with a strong dream and unstoppable desire, with such a strong inner experience, that the author manages to perfectly capture it through image and atmosphere. Virginie Sudrej's photography is exceptional, there is such a play with colors, such anticipation, such strong experience, such pain and compassion, such devotion to people and materials that seem to carry the essence of life, true belonging and character, what is being increasingly forgotten today, looking for quick and superficial pleasures from life...
The materials that slip through his hands like that, those materials, that beautiful caftan with a petroleum blue color, on which Halim works with great precision, with great love and commitment to finally dress his Mina in it. The one who knew how to understand, the one whose truth and greatness can't help but make you cry. Exactly the way Youssef will feel when Mina asks him for forgiveness, when he captures with such dismay that moment in which everything you once loved is broken in you, the thing that brings you happiness, but also sadness, pride, but also struggle, brings you faith, but also fear, because life is like that. It can be both beautiful and cruel, but also full of emotions and love for the essential, because in the end it is more important than anything else, with its constancy and duration. Like the caftan, which can outlive you, but only when you follow its true nature.
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