Seventy-nine-year-old María Ángeles (Carmen Maura) lives an independent existence in the Spanish quarter of Tangier. When her daughter Clara (Marta Etura) arrives from Madrid to pressure her into selling her apartment, however, the stable trajectory of María’s life is thrown off course. Resolving to stay no matter the cost, María quietly rebels against her daughter’s wishes and in so doing develops an unexpected romantic connection with someone she once considered an opponent.
Following the acclaimed The Blue Caftan (VIFF 2022), Moroccan director Maryam Touzani makes her Spanish-language debut with this deeply felt film about age, motherhood, and resilience, drawing from memories of her own grandmother. Anchored by Spanish screen legend and Pedro Almodóvar regular Carmen Maura, the film refracts María’s predicament through a delightful and eclectic ensemble of characters. It is a film that portrays the experience of aging not as defeat, but as a continual defiance of one’s limits.
Audience Award, Venice 2025; Oscar Submission: Morocco
Carmen Maura, Marta Etura, Ahmed Boulane, María Alfonsa Rosso
Morocco/France/Spain/
Germany/Belgium
2025
In Spanish and Arabic with English subtitles
At SFU Woodwards
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Producer
Nabil Ayouch, Amine Benjelloun, Jean-Rémi Ducourtioux, Simón de Santiago, Fernando Bovaira, Fred Burle, Sol Bondy, Sebastian Schelenz
Screenwriter
Maryam Touzani, Nabil Ayouch
Cinematography
Virginie Surdej
Editor
Teresa Font
Production Design
Eve Martin, Samir Issoum
Original Music
Freya Arde
Maryam Touzani
Born in 1980, Maryam Touzani grew up in Tangier, Morocco before pursuing a university degree in journalism in London. Passionate about writing, she moved back to her home country to work as a journalist, specializing in North African cinema, and eventually developed the urge to express herself though her own films. She has directed a number of documentaries and short fiction films, including When They Slept (2012) and Aya Goes to the Beach (2025), both of which screened around the world and received a number of awards.
Filmography: Adam (2019); The Blue Caftan (2022)
Photo by Lorenzo Salemi
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Short Cuts
Altman's adaptation of Raymond Carver short stories, Short Cuts weaves between 8 or 9 overlapping storylines and 22 characters. it's a teeming, caustic and compassionate human comedy; a singularly astringent, often cynical view of America and Americana.
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
A bona fide classic and arguably the greatest Canadian film of the 90s, Girard's dazzling deconstruction of the biopic gives us the mercurial pianist Glenn Gould as Picasso might have rendered him, a cubist portrait combining multimedia vignettes.
Schindler's List
One of the most acclaimed films of the 90s, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark is the story of a German industrialist whose conscience is stirred to save his Jewish workers from the camps.
Free event.
Dazed and Confused
The last day of high school in May, 1976: seniors debate party politics while next term's freshmen run the gauntlet of brutal initiation rites, barely comforted by the knowledge that they'll wield the stick one day.
Whispers in the Woods
A luxuriant, healing immersion in nature with ravishing wildlife photography, this is the cinematic equivalent of "forest bathing," a trip deep into the Vosges, France, with photographer Vincent Munier (The Velvet Queen), his father and his son.