Fatna, a Woman Named Rachid
Fall Grants 2024 - Post-Production Stage
Helene Harder / Feature Documentary / France, Morocco, Belgium, Qatar / 80 min / Original Language: Arabic, French / Interests: Documentary
Synopsis
In the National Archives of the Kingdom of Morocco, thousands of files await inventory, including those of political violence victims from the “years of lead.” Among them is a file on Fatna El Bouih, forcibly disappeared and tortured as a 21-year-old student in the 1970s. After years of reconstruction and silence, 67-year-old Fatna continues her fight, pursuing “her dream of change” differently. Despite a still challenging context, she is involved in prisons, advocates for gender equality, and shares her story with Syrian women survivors of Saydnaya prison.
Following her through Casablanca’s bustling streets, we witness her relentless activism, including one of her most challenging projects: organising a film festival at the Oukacha prison, the country’s largest juvenile detention centre. Images of modern Casablanca blend with footage from the 1970s, merging past and present. Fatna’s inner voice narrates her life, from her birth during Morocco’s independence to her involvement with the revolutionary left in the 1970s. ‘Fatna, a Woman Named Rachid’ is a sensitive and intimate journey that mixes past and present, portraying a pioneer of women’s active engagement and her intimate struggle to exist.
Credits
- Director
- Hélène Harder
- Producer
- Jean David Lefebvre, Ilham Raouf
- Production Company
- Abel Aflam
About the Director
After studying philosophy at École Normale Supérieure (Paris), Hélène Harder turned to cinema following a serious accident. She trained at UC Berkeley Film & Media School and worked as a director’s assistant in New York and Paris. In 2012, she directed her first feature documentary, ‘Ladies’ Turn’, which screened at festivals in 15 countries and aired on ARTE, TV5 Monde, and PBS. Since 2013, she has worked between France and Morocco on transmedia and documentary projects. She was introduced to former political prisoner Fatna El Bouih by producer Jean-David Lefebvre and developed ‘Fatna, a Woman Named Rachid’. She continues to work as a filmmaker and photographer with theatre and dance companies, artists, and independent media.