Director Aksel Rifman Questioned in Morocco

Aksel Rifman

By the editorial team of the Amazigh Information Center (AIC)

Aksel Rifman is a director and screenwriter. He has made several productions, such as the film The Killing Silence (2013) and the series 2 x 2 (2013).

His latest film Monsters (2018) is one of 10 films selected from 650 films from 32 countries for the Winter Film Awards in New York.

In Morocco, this Tamazight-speaking film was not selected for the film festival in Tangier. A request for funding for this film was also rejected by the state institution Le Centre Cinématographique Marocain (CCM).

The Riffian director Rifman, who lives in the United States, talks about his experience with the CCM, which also renews film accreditations: “I submitted a script to the CCM for funding and was invited for a meeting. I was asked strange questions by the CCM funding committee, such as: why didn’t you give the film an Arabic name? Why did you choose to make the film in Tamazight? Why did the main character in the film answer that he is from the Rif and not from Morocco?”

Le Centre Cinématographique Marocain (CCM)

Aksel Rifman continues: “I did not get any real questions about my film from the CCM funding committee. I felt like I was being questioned by the police.”

Translated into English with the help of ChatGPT; the original article can be read HERE.