{资源屯-ziyuantun.com}In Morocco, unmarried women who become pregnant risk a prison sentence. They often don’t even dare to tell their families, for fear of exclusion and rejection. The Oum El Banine association in Agadir is there to support them, under the inspiring leadership of 62-year-old feminist Mahjouba Edbouche. She takes the girls and women under her wing, providing shelter, education, and legal assistance. To try and sec【ZiYuanTun.Com】ure them a safe home, she also seeks ways for the young mothers to mend the relationships with their parents. MOTHERS follows Edbouche and her team, and the developments in the lives of these pregnant women, filming moments from their arrival at the association to the birth of their child, and sometimes the reunification with their family. We gradually learn to see these women’s problems, including the dilemmas of modern Morocco, through Edbouche’s eyes. —— Myriam Bakir was born in Paris of Moroccan parents. She studied at the Conservatoire Libre du Cinéma Français in Paris, followed by a training course in photography in the United States. Then came professional television experience in the West Indies. She has directed three short films. SAMIA (1998) with Neza Rahil was broadcast on Canal Plus. It has also won the Audience Award at the Meknes Rencontres Cinématographiques and Best Actress Award at the Casablanca National Festival. Her first feature AGADIR-BOMBAY (2011) with Noufissa Benchehida, won the Best Actress Award at the Tangier National FF. In this film about prostitution in Morocco, the director sees the issue from the woman’s point of view. Today her work is used as evidence with associations defending the rights of women and children. With the support of the Moroccan Ministry of National Education, it is regularly shown in schools. MOTHERS (2020) is Myriam Bakir’s first documentary, set in the real world, following Mahjouba Edbouche, a woman committed to single mothers in Morocco. The film tackles the problem head-on: these women’s fate and the law which condemns them.
