FILMS/
HEAVEN’S DOORS
New Directors
Morocco , 2006, 160 minutes
SHOWTIMES
Fri, Apr 27 / 09:00 / Kabuki / HEAD27K
Tue, May 1 / 12:00 / Kabuki / HEAD01K
Wed, May 2 / 12:30 / Kabuki / HEAD02K
CREDITS
- dir
-
Imad Noury, Swel Noury
- prod
-
Pilar Cazorla
- scr
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Swel Noury
- cam
-
Paulo Ares
- editor
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Eloy Gonzalez, Goyo Villasevil
- cast
-
Hakim Noury, Aimee Meditz, Rabie Kati, Hamidou , Latifa Ahrare, Mostafa Salamate, Smail Hijazy, Taha Ghrabi
- source
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Latido Films, Calle Veneras 9, 6º - 28013 Madrid, Spain FAX: +34-915-488-878 EMAIL: massimo_saidel@yahoo.com
It’s said that mothers hold the keys to heaven’s doors. Sons struggle with their mothers over possession of those keys in this impressive debut feature by brothers Swel and Imad Noury. Middle-aged Smail (the directors’ father, noted Moroccan filmmaker Hakim Noury), due to be released after 15 years in prison, plans to reunite with his sick mother and seek vengeance on the friend who sold him out. Lisa, a widowed American expat in Casablanca, suddenly finds herself playing mother to a little boy whose father has been shot dead and whose real mother lies in a coma. And Ney, resisting the impulse to cross "the Strait" to become an illegal alien in Europe like his friends have done, is saddled with the responsibility of supporting his little sister and blind, embittered mother. Ney’s decision to make money by committing crimes for a gang boss traps all of the characters in a cycle of violence that destroys families but also creates unexpected new alliances and awakenings. As these storylines intersect, the Nourys maintain suspense with a dynamic, often voyeuristic style and a fractured time scheme that recall Tarantino and Iñárritu. As a wino tells Smail, "Things in our life can only be understood in reverse." This ambitious and rewarding narrative signals the Nourys as filmmakers of surprising maturity and sympathy for mothers, sons and all troubled souls knocking blindly at heaven’s doors.
—Frako Loden
Sponsored by Sundance Cinemas Kabuki. Presented in association with the Arab Film Festival.