Weaving a collage of rare posters, magazine covers, archival footage and graphic novels, Before the Dying of the Light harkens back to the artistic scene of the 1970s in Morocco. Culling footage from a Moroccan independent experimental film censored in 1974, About Some Meaningless Events by Mostafa Derkaoui, in which  a group of young filmmakers explored the new role of Moroccan cinema, the film revives a counterculture of resistance,.  Marxist student movements  saw cinema as a means of politicizing the public. Dedicated to the victims of censorship and oppression, Before the Dying of the Light employs riotously edited fragments evoking a time of excitement about the future, before it was extinguished by the repressive years under the monarch Hassan II.

ALI ESSAFI studied Psychology in France. His directorial debut titled General, Here We Come! (Général, nous voilà!, 1997), a documentary about Moroccan veterans in the French army, was awarded the Special Jury Award at the Namur Film Festival. His films include The Silence of the Beet Fields (Le Silence des champs de betteraves, 1998) Ouarzazate the Movie (2001), Cheikhates Blues (2004); Wanted (2011) and Crossing the Seventh Gate (Ubur al-Bab al-Sabe‘h, 2017). He moved back to Morocco in 2002 and worked as an advisor to the Moroccan public television channel for three years before returning to film directing in 2009.

The Carnegie Museum of Art in partnership with Row House Cinema presents the 58th Carnegie International Film Festival curated by Rasha Salti. The festival opens at Row House Cinema on Friday March 3 and runs through Sunday, March 11.   

—–Showtimes—–
Qabla Zahf el-Zhalam (Before the Dying of the Light) – 3/4/23 @ 7 pm with an intro by festival curator Rasha Salti