Friday 24 May 2024

Everyone Loves Touda - Cannes Film Festival

 

Chasing dreams and wanting more, a better life is an age-old tale. Films such as these can feel predictable as soon as the tone is set. As an audience we become hopeful along with the dreamer of the story and even though we can guess how things will end, we still cling onto the hope that this character somehow succeeds. In Everyone Loves Touda, we enter the world of hopeful dreamer Touda and share in her journey, but we know all too well how this story ends.

Touda, is a Sheikha, a traditional Moroccan performer who are empowered by the songs of fierce female poets who lived before. Trying to carve out an existence in her rural town, performing each night in darkened bars to drunken men, Touda wants more from life. Deciding to take a chance, she moves to Casablanca, the big city, in the hope of being recognised as a true artist and securing a place for her son at a school that accommodates deaf children.

Full review over at Filmhounds.