TURTLES DO NOT DIE OF OLD AGE
90 min, Documentary, Maroc, Québec, 2010Directed byHind Benchekroun & Sami Mermer
Produced byHind Benchekroun et Sami Mermer
LanguagesArabic, French
This film celebrates longevity by introducing us to three colorful characters living in Morocco.
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Film details
Synopsis
This film celebrates longevity by introducing us to three colorful characters, all in their 80s, living in the North of Morocco. They share the courage and the pride of working continuously. Chehma is a former master fisherman, owner of a boat. Even though it leaks a little, he dreams of taking it back to sea. Abdesslam works as a street musician and his major objective is to arrange the marriage of his oldest son. Erradi, an innkeeper, is proud of his 30 year-old car and lives like a hermit, surrounded by an amazing collection of old clocks. Each in their own way demonstrate beautifully a strong will to live.
Credits
Script and Direction : Hind Benchekroun and Sami Mermer
Image : Sami Mermer
Sound Editing: Claude Beaugrand et Francine Poirier
Editing : René Roberge
Production : Hind Benchekroun et Sami Mermer (Turtle Films)
Financial partners
ONF
Aide au cinéma indépendant – ACIC
Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Direction
Hind Benchekroun
Hind Benchekroun is writer and a filmmaker. She co-wrote and was assistant director of Production Multi-Monde's Musiques Rebelles Québec (2002) and as a line producer of Musiques Rebelles Americas. Hind began her career in cinema as production assistant to Ian Boyd at Films de l'isle after completing a Master's degree in communication. Filmography
Sami Mermer
Sami is a kurdish filmmaker from Turkey. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, he directed The Box of Lanzo (2006), a feature documentary about homeless poeple. The film traveled in many festivals as the Flint film festival in U.S and Human Rights Films Festival in Scotland. He also directed a short film called Sortie (2005), winner of campus arts short films competition. Sami was co-writer and assistant director of Ax (the land) (1999), winner of several prices and best film in Hamburg film festival (Germany, 2000).
Sami worked as a director of photography on several films, as Taxi Casablanca (2007), a documentary about the only woman who drives the white taxi in Casablanca Morocco, codirected by Hind Benchekroun and Mary Fowles and that was broadcasted on TV5. He also shot The concert of the voices of Bettina Ehrardt, a documentary on Kent Nagano. Sami was also an assistant cameraman of the D.O.P Philippe Lavalette on the movie Victoria (2007) directed by Anna Karina.
His latest documentary, Turtles do not die of old age (2011), was co-directed and co-produced with Hind Benchekroun. Il a remporté the Grand Prix at the 17th Festival International du Cinéma Méditerranéen de Tétouan in 2011. Moreover, it was presented at the Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal (RDIM), and was selected at the Dok Fest Munick.
Filmography