{"id":32887,"date":"2024-05-03T07:37:32","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T05:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/?p=32887"},"modified":"2024-05-03T07:37:32","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T05:37:32","slug":"asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"Asmae El Moudir&#8217;s <em>The Mother of All Lies<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5>Moroccan director <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Asmae El Moudir&#8217;s experimental documentary has something to teach about unreliable memories and the violence of silences.<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brittany Landorf<\/span><\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the trailer for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kadib Abyad<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Mother of All Lies<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a small figurine appears bathed in a reddish-purple haze. An old woman raises a miniature cane as her hooded eyes glare suspiciously. Her looming gaze is juxtaposed by the faint glitter of her rhinestone hijab and pale floral jellaba. As the light flickers and mellows to soft blues, a voice laments from above: \u201cAhh, they\u2019ve deformed me! Look \u2014 they\u2019ve deformed me \u2014 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018awjawni\u0304<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">!\u201d The camera shifts, peering behind the shoulder of an old woman examining the miniature likeness in her hand using a magnifying glass. The old woman continues to cry out: \u201cThey\u2019ve deformed me \u2014<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018awjawni\u0304, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">see how they\u2019ve deformed me!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES Trailer | TIFF 2023\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MMUOhnDGNTw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This scene, which comes early in Moroccan director Asmae El Moudir\u2019s experimental documentary, depicts her grandmother\u2019s reaction to the doll-like representation. While initially humorous, a sign of her grandma\u2019s cantankerous nature which is never pleased, its framing in the trailer highlights the tension motivating her grandma\u2019s rejection of her representation. Her cries of \u201cyou\u2019ve deformed me\u201d gesture to central questions concerning the politics of memory and forgetting motivating the film: How do we remember troubled pasts? What stories do photos tell or hide?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shot over a period of eight years in Casablanca and Marrakesh, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt15307068\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Mother of All Lies<\/span><\/i><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(2023)<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is El Moudir\u2019s first major film. It has been lauded by<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2023\/film\/awards\/asmae-el-moudir-the-mother-of-all-lies-marrakech-film-festival-1235814412\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> international film festivals<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moroccoworldnews.com\/2023\/09\/357724\/white-lies-is-moroccos-official-entry-for-2024-oscars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Morocco\u2019s entry<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for Best International Feature Film at the 2024 Academy Awards<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> this past year. Her innovative documentary style has been praised, and she won the directing prize in Cannes\u2019 Un Certain Regard Section. El Moudir is motivated by the possibilities and limits of photographs as repositories of memory. Her first film, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mubi.com\/en\/us\/films\/the-postcard-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Postcard<\/span><\/i><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(2020), follows the discovery of a postcard of the rural mountain village Zawiya, to explore her mother and her maternal family\u2019s past.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Mother of All Lies<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Moudir asks who holds the story when its traces have been effaced. In translating the Moroccan Arabic title from \u201ca white lie\u201d (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">kadib abyad<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) to \u201cthe mother of all lies,\u201d the author plays on the genealogical roots of silences and buried violence structuring both her family\u2019s and Morocco\u2019s pasts. As she has observed in a recent interview for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hammertonail.com\/interviews\/asmae-el-moudir\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hammer to Nail<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: \u201cFor me, \u2018kadib abyad\u2019 is about how I asked why, in our family, we have no pictures anywhere. Why? I started this film in 2012, and in 2016 I discovered that there had been a big riot in the street where I grew up and I understood that our family\u2019s story was part of a much larger story. And so both the \u2018white lie\u2019 and the \u2018mother of all lies\u2019 refer to the process of discovering that story.\u201d Yet, as her grandma\u2019s cry resounds, El Moudir is careful to also consider how narrative, film, and photographic representations of these silences may also distort as they uncover.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Throughout the film, El Moudir threads the parallel exploration of her family\u2019s lack of photos alongside the Moroccan state\u2019s brutal repression of the strike against high bread prices on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/archive\/politics\/1981\/08\/25\/a-black-saturday-shadows-the-future-of-hassans-morocco\/8a5cb6ce-39b4-42b9-bb48-f3a196706961\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0June 20, 1981<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, known as the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1981\/07\/04\/world\/as-morocco-starts-to-gain-in-war-nation-erupts.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCasablanca bread riots.\u201d<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A key motif she considers is how burning family photos and burying bodies in unnamed graves can effect multiple, interconnected layers of erasure. To narrate injustices that bear no records, El Moudir turned to the technique<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of sandplay therapy, a method of semi-scripted play therapy using dolls, puppets, or other toys. Drawing on her father\u2019s expertise as a builder, she worked with him to recreate her childhood neighborhood (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">darb<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) in clay miniature. They spent years, attentive to the smallest tile and even wiring actual miniature light fixtures. The replica of her neighborhood provides the stage for her family and neighbors\u2019 recuperation of what were known as the \u201cYears of Lead\u201d during the repressive regime of the late King Hassan II, 1956-1999.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_33019\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33019\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-33019\" src=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Poster-of-The-Mother-of-All-Lies-doc-by-Asmae-El-Moudir.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;The Mother of All Lies&quot; (courtesy Insight Films &amp; Fig Leaf Studios).\" width=\"450\" height=\"626\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Poster-of-The-Mother-of-All-Lies-doc-by-Asmae-El-Moudir.jpg 500w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Poster-of-The-Mother-of-All-Lies-doc-by-Asmae-El-Moudir-216x300.jpg 216w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33019\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Poster of <em>The Mother of All Lies<\/em>\u00a0(courtesy Insight Films &amp; Fig Leaf Studios).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The film is semi-scripted; its narration split between El Moudir\u2019s present self and El Moudir as she imagines her childhood self. Within this narration, she interweaves scenes acted out by her two neighbors, Said and Abdallah, and her parents. Her grandmother, the film\u2019s designated antagonist, roams the set, inserting herself at will. Some of the most powerful moments in the film emerge in Said\u2019s and Abdallah\u2019s recreation of the events surrounding the bread riots on June 20, 1981 and her grandmother\u2019s reaction to these tellings. Abdallah, in particular, responds strongly to the grandmother, calling her \u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Makhzan\u201d <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and \u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">makhzani<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d In Morocco, the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">makhzan <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">refers specifically to the Moroccan state, deriving from the state\u2019s historical role as a \u201cstorehouse.\u201d Colloquially, it also can connote the meanings of \u201cdictator\u201d and \u201cauthoritarian,\u201d which is how El Moudir translates the term in English. In two tense moments, Abdallah breaks down and wishes to leave as he equates the grandma and her insistence on erasing the events of those days \u2014 because \u201cthe walls have ears\u201d \u2014 with the same repressive power which caused him to be arbitrarily arrested, taken from his house, and thrown into a small jail cell full of 36 children and men who suffocated to death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the film unfolds, the parallel between the grandmother as the Moroccan state, embodied by King Hassan II, shifts. While El Moudir\u2019s narration and the semi-scripted scenes and shots employ this comparison, the directors also subtly unravel it as her grandmother navigates her own relationship to memory and photos. At a certain point in the film, after the grandmother accuses her daughter-in-law of \u201cstealing\u201d and \u201clying\u201d about a photo of El Moudir as a child, she breaks down and weeps. Is it, El Moudir wonders, the first time she has seen her grandma cry? Her grandma\u2019s insistent burning of all photos and refusal to have her own taken are traced to a violence of her own. El Moudir\u2019s recursive genealogy thus reveals not only her own lack of photos but her grandma\u2019s, which is rooted in a too-early marriage and domestic violence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a film marked by the violence of silences, it is notable that the film itself perpetuates clear omissions. El Moudir\u2019s attention to her grandmother\u2019s hypocrisy \u2014 revering the photo of King Hassan II when she destroys all other photographic material \u2014 obscures the director\u2019s own contradictions. Although the photos of Hassan II repeat everywhere \u2014 in the grandma\u2019s real home, the dollhouse recreation of her home, on the cover of the 12-year old martyr, Fatima\u2019s, fifth-grade project on the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1975\/10\/29\/archives\/morocco-responds-with-fervor-to-appeal-for-sahara-march.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Green March<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, there are no photos nor mentions of the current King Muhammad VI. Further, no connection is made between the Casablanca bread riots and the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newarab.com\/news\/hundreds-arrested-unrest-escalates-moroccos-rif\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2016-2017 Rif protests.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A telling moment occurs after the celebratory scene for her grandmother\u2019s birthday. As El Moudir, her parents, and neighbors wave sparklers, clapping and dancing around her grandma who seems to be experiencing real joy, the old woman ululates, tilts back her head, and calls out: \u201cLong live the King! <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aash al-maalik!\u201d <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her grandma\u2019s cry dampens the buoyant mood; she is, as El Moudir observes, \u201ca killjoy.\u201d El Moudir frames the collapse of the mood and the return of her grandma\u2019s censorship as her continued love for the repressive ruler, King Hassan II. Yet, it is unclear why her grandma would wish a long life on a king who died over twenty years earlier for it is unlikely that she will live nearly as long. In occluding her grandma\u2019s reference and reverence for King Hassan II\u2019s son, King Muhammad VI, El Moudir seems to imply that the injustices and human rights violations perpetuated by the Moroccan state, the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">makhzan<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, are a thing of the past.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The silences toward the current regime may be explained by El Moudir\u2019s own insistence in the film: \u201cI am a director (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mukhrija<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">)\u2026Not a journalist (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s\u0323iha\u0304fa<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">).\u201d Whereas in her grandmother\u2019s world, to be a journalist is to be reputable and explains her granddaughter\u2019s desire to dig up past injustices, in Morocco today, to be a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cpj.org\/reports\/2007\/07\/moroccoweb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">journalist is to be vulnerable,<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">at the whim of the very regime, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/moroccan-press-freedom-suffers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">makhzan<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that El Moudir intimates is a memory.\u00a0 Instead, as an artist and a director, El Moudir has benefited from the Moroccan state. Her film was sponsored by a state-funded Atlas Workshop, won the Marrakesh International Film Festival\u2019s best documentary film prize, and has emerged as an emblem of Morocco\u2019s dynamic film industry. In her interviews and public address, the director has praised the king directly, thanking King Muhammad VI for his support.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The director\u2019s relationship to her grandmother, like her relationship to the Moroccan state, is complex. At once denying the crimes of past silences and attempting to wrestle with them, El Moudir also traces the personal trauma of her grandmother and attempts her own healing through film. While the past Moroccan king, Hassan II, is critiqued throughout the film, incidents of current state violence go unmentioned. This omission reveals, as El Moudir reminds the viewer through her slide from present-day to child narrator, that memory and how we narrate the past is slippery. Memory consists of multiple narrative threads, contradictory and entangled, and truth may be more in the telling than in what is told.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brittany Landorf reviews the first major film of director Asmae El Moudir, Morocco\u2019s entry for the 2024 Academy Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":561,"featured_media":33021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18,3511],"tags":[2394,1119,2915,1161,1358,3566],"coauthors":[3541],"class_list":["post-32887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","category-film-review","category-tmr-41-forgetting","tag-life-in-morocco","tag-memory","tag-moroccan-film","tag-morocco","tag-photography","tag-state-violence","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Asmae El Moudir&#039;s The Mother of All Lies - The Markaz Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Asmae El Moudir&#039;s The Mother of All Lies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Brittany Landorf reviews the first major film of director Asmae El Moudir, Morocco\u2019s entry for the 2024 Academy Awards.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Markaz Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-03T05:37:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Zahra-Jeddaoui-in-Asmae-El-Moudirs-The-Mother-of-All-Lies.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brittany Landorf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brittany Landorf\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brittany Landorf\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5c7714500433f41a257c936637826c94\"},\"headline\":\"Asmae El Moudir&#8217;s The Mother of All Lies\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-03T05:37:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1611,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/Zahra-Jeddaoui-in-Asmae-El-Moudirs-The-Mother-of-All-Lies.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Life in Morocco\",\"memory\",\"Moroccan film\",\"Morocco\",\"photography\",\"state violence\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Film\",\"Film Reviews\",\"TMR 41 \u2022 FORGETTING\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\\\/\",\"name\":\"Asmae El Moudir's The Mother of All Lies - The Markaz Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/Zahra-Jeddaoui-in-Asmae-El-Moudirs-The-Mother-of-All-Lies.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-03T05:37:32+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/Zahra-Jeddaoui-in-Asmae-El-Moudirs-The-Mother-of-All-Lies.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/Zahra-Jeddaoui-in-Asmae-El-Moudirs-The-Mother-of-All-Lies.jpg\",\"width\":1300,\"height\":667,\"caption\":\"Zahra Jeddaoui in Asmae El Moudir's \\\"The Mother of All Lies\\\" (courtesy Insight Films & Fig Leaf Studios).\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Asmae El Moudir&#8217;s The Mother of All Lies\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Markaz Review\",\"description\":\"Literature and Arts from the Center of the World\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Markaz Review\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/08\\\/cropped-New-2023-TMR-Logo-500-pix.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/08\\\/cropped-New-2023-TMR-Logo-500-pix.jpg\",\"width\":473,\"height\":191,\"caption\":\"The Markaz Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5c7714500433f41a257c936637826c94\",\"name\":\"Brittany Landorf\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9a4f08a2dfe2507bed53d9f6064db3bd3f5bbda9c0d44447f4b486094a51e069?s=96&d=mm&r=g71ac88e43499a5812589e10d99198200\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9a4f08a2dfe2507bed53d9f6064db3bd3f5bbda9c0d44447f4b486094a51e069?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9a4f08a2dfe2507bed53d9f6064db3bd3f5bbda9c0d44447f4b486094a51e069?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Brittany Landorf\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/author\\\/brittanylandorf\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Asmae El Moudir's The Mother of All Lies - The Markaz Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Asmae El Moudir's The Mother of All Lies","og_description":"Brittany Landorf reviews the first major film of director Asmae El Moudir, Morocco\u2019s entry for the 2024 Academy Awards.","og_url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/","og_site_name":"The Markaz Review","article_published_time":"2024-05-03T05:37:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1300,"height":667,"url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Zahra-Jeddaoui-in-Asmae-El-Moudirs-The-Mother-of-All-Lies.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Brittany Landorf","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brittany Landorf","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/"},"author":{"name":"Brittany Landorf","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/5c7714500433f41a257c936637826c94"},"headline":"Asmae El Moudir&#8217;s The Mother of All Lies","datePublished":"2024-05-03T05:37:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/"},"wordCount":1611,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Zahra-Jeddaoui-in-Asmae-El-Moudirs-The-Mother-of-All-Lies.jpg","keywords":["Life in Morocco","memory","Moroccan film","Morocco","photography","state violence"],"articleSection":["Film","Film Reviews","TMR 41 \u2022 FORGETTING"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/","url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/","name":"Asmae El Moudir's The Mother of All Lies - The Markaz Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Zahra-Jeddaoui-in-Asmae-El-Moudirs-The-Mother-of-All-Lies.jpg","datePublished":"2024-05-03T05:37:32+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Zahra-Jeddaoui-in-Asmae-El-Moudirs-The-Mother-of-All-Lies.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Zahra-Jeddaoui-in-Asmae-El-Moudirs-The-Mother-of-All-Lies.jpg","width":1300,"height":667,"caption":"Zahra Jeddaoui in Asmae El Moudir's \"The Mother of All Lies\" (courtesy Insight Films & Fig Leaf Studios)."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/asmae-el-moudirs-the-mother-of-all-lies\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Asmae El Moudir&#8217;s The Mother of All Lies"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/","name":"The Markaz Review","description":"Literature and Arts from the Center of the World","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#organization","name":"The Markaz Review","url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/cropped-New-2023-TMR-Logo-500-pix.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/cropped-New-2023-TMR-Logo-500-pix.jpg","width":473,"height":191,"caption":"The Markaz Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/5c7714500433f41a257c936637826c94","name":"Brittany Landorf","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a4f08a2dfe2507bed53d9f6064db3bd3f5bbda9c0d44447f4b486094a51e069?s=96&d=mm&r=g71ac88e43499a5812589e10d99198200","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a4f08a2dfe2507bed53d9f6064db3bd3f5bbda9c0d44447f4b486094a51e069?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a4f08a2dfe2507bed53d9f6064db3bd3f5bbda9c0d44447f4b486094a51e069?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Brittany Landorf"},"url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/author\/brittanylandorf\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Zahra-Jeddaoui-in-Asmae-El-Moudirs-The-Mother-of-All-Lies.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/561"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32887"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33025,"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32887\/revisions\/33025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32887"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=32887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}