Dir. Mohamed Asli, 2004, Morocco/Italy, 94 mins
Cast:
Abdessamed Miftah El Kheir, Rachid El Hazmir, Abdelaziz Essghyr, Leila El Ahyani
Hear the name Casablanca and you're already thinking of clandestine visits with a lover in the desert, legendary one-liners and twinkling piano music setting the mood. Back in the real world producer turned director Asli has taken this heavenly vision of Bogart cool, clipped its wings and brought it back down to earth with a bump, giving his home town a modern makeover. Like all places in the west, the city is a testament to capitalism, gridlocked roads teaming with workers trying to get everywhere and nowhere and it's such men the story focuses on. While Asli introduces Casablanca with an MTV air of excitement this quickly becomes an ironic jab as the plot looks at the struggling lives of three restaurant workers whose simple dreams are constantly crushed by the unforgiving wheels of power that run the city.
Around Casablanca are the deserts of Morroco but in Angels they are as bleak and cold as a Siberian winter, the men have left the land to work in the city and all that's left are poverty-stricken villages bereft of modern conveniences. In one such place the pregnant Aicha (Ahyani) can't even climb the hill to the village's only telephone, her husband Said (Hazmir), working hard to send her money, misses the birth of the child. It's their story that provides the emotional centre of the movie and one recognisable to any working man, he wants the best for his family but by doing so he fails to be there when they need him most.
Ottman (Essghyr) and Ismail (Kheir) don't have this problem so instead their tales examine the dangers of wasting money on unattainable dreams. Ottman's story of wanting to keep his childhood Arabian stallion is the most marginalized of the script being the least identifiable while Ismail's lust after a fine pair of shoes provides the film's more comedic moments. Perhaps detracting from the more poignant themes it wily pokes fun at the perversion of consumerism, from the seductive opening of the hard won shoebox to tiptoeing around Casablanca to avoid the shiny new footwear getting dirty. You can just hear Tyler Durden shaking his head and saying, "The things you own, end up owning you".
With Asli shooting each cautionary tale with dark knowing fatalism he allows the film to grow naturally as each nail of capitalism seals the protagonists coffin, without having to rely on the Hollywood dovetail ending where everything is neatly resolved. Each man has their goal and alienation is the only way for them to focus on it, so while Asli's Casablanca promises much, ultimately, it is never enough.
The inexperience of the actors and a genuine, addictive Moroccan score add to the overall simplicity of the piece that never attempts to be anything more than its humble subject matter. The subtitles might get people thinking that this is a story set a million miles away from the world they live in but Angels is a relevant warning to any employee of the developed world. The greed of money can homogenise even the most romantic of city legends.
Richard Badley
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