Everybody Loves Touda

Touda lives in a small Moroccan town, spending her days looking after her deaf mute son and nights singing and dancing in nightclubs. She aspires to be a traditional Sheikha singer, but lecherous club owners and patrons are more interested in her body than her voice. Seeking a new start, she relocates to Casablanca, where she hopes her talent will be taken seriously and she will find a specialist school for her son. But attitudes in the big city are not necessarily any more progressive than they are at home. 

The latest film from Nabil Ayouch, director of the Palme D’or-nominated, Casablanca Beats, is another vibrant story of self-expression through music; featuring stunning musical numbers and an electrifying performance from Nisrin Erradi. There is an ironic disconnect between her passionately delivered songs of love and liberation  and the role she is expected to play by misogynist males and unquestioning females but Touda’s fierce reliance and ambition shines through. Vividly depicting seedy nightclubs, Atlas mountain skylines and bucolic rural scenes, there is much to fall in love with here.