Mauvais Genres Film Festival - Adam by Maryam Touzani

Fiction, 88 minutes *In Arabic with English subtitles

Open to Columbia University Community only - RSVP with CUID required.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with Professor Madeleine Dobie, Nora Philippe and Shanny Peer.

Abla, a widow and mother of eight-year-old Warda, runs a popular bakery in the narrow streets of Casablanca's old town. When her routine is interrupted by a knock on the door, she is unaware that her life is about to change forever. On the doorstep stands Samia, a pregnant young woman asking for a place to stay, and, in fact, to deliver her baby. Adam is a bittersweet drama on the fate of single mothers in Morocco, and a tale of intense sisterhood, carried by the exceptional Belgian-Moroccan star actress Lubna Azabal. Coproduced by French and Moroccan production companies and distributed in France, but written and shot in Morocco, Adam is one of the two international films featured in this festival.

Born in 1980 in Tangiers, Morocco, Maryam Touzani first worked as a film critic and a journalist, specializing in gender issues and women’s rights. Her first short fiction films, When They Slept (2012), and Aya Goes to the Beach (2015) received numerous awards worldwide. She directed several documentaries about prostitution and children’s rights, and co-writed Nabil Ayouch’s greatly acclaimed Much Loved (2015) and Razzia (2017), in which she plays a leading role. Adam is her first feature-length film, selected at the Cannes Film Festival (section 'Un Certain Regard').

This event is featured as part of the film festival, Mauvais Genres: French Cinema Takes on Gender organized by the Columbia Maison Française and curated by Nora Philippe. Additional support is provided by Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Knapp Family Foundation, Paul LeClerc Centennial Fund, Columbia University Institute for Ideas and Imagination, Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities.

Please email [email protected] to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs. This event will be recorded. By being electronically present, you consent to the Maison Française using such video for promotional purposes.

Host or Publisher Columbia Maison Française