Traitors

This engaging Moroccan drama held my interest throughout its duration. It has believable characters, and is quite well acted, written, and directed.

Chaimae Ben Acha is superb, as Malika, who's a tough-minded aspiring 25-year-old punk-rock singer and leader of her band Traitors. A record producer expresses interest in her music, but to cut a demo Malika will have to quickly come up with enough money to rent a studio. She also finds out that her family is facing eviction and has many unpaid bills as well.

Desperate for the cash, she agrees to take a risky driving job from a local drug dealer (Mourade Zeguendi), which will lead to harrowing occurrences along the way. On this job, she will meet another courier Amal, well portrayed by Souffia Issami, who is pregnant and desperate to get out of the drug courier trade. This will all lead to a somewhat implausible but still quite ingenious finale.

Sean Gullette makes an impressive feature film debut here, both as writer and director. I will look forward to see what his future work will bring to the screen.

In summary, I didn't know what to expect from this film, so was pleasantly surprised at its engrossing nature.