Las mil y una manos

With his debut "A Thousand and One Hands", Morrocan filmmaker Souheil Ben-Barka, who has always been the little man's advocate in film, plunges into the milieu of the economic divide. The social concern is described from the perspective of the absurd and the have-nots. The story in Souheil Ben-Barka's debut is all knitted around an insane old man who goes from a Kafkaesque absurdity to the next social humiliation. It is absurd, but it is only the beginning of the almost surreal, but unfortunately all too realistic questioning the cultural hybridity. Souheil Ben-Barka has used Eastmancolor to drape the film in a dramatic spectrum of hues. The colors here play a corresponding, though not exactly equivalent in few scenes especially in the bourgeoisie set up. Overall, i think that "Les mille et une mains" is a Moroccan cinematic jewel worthy of recognition and should be among the world's finest world films. The expressionistic undertone of beauty that lingers in our minds really makes this film unforgettable. I'd recommend this for fans of Souleymane Cisse's Baara, Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Gabbeh, Yimou Zhang's Ju DOU, Carlos Mayolo and Luis Ospina's The Vampires of Poverty.