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Pyramide Films has boarded Meryem Benm’Barek’s “Behind the Palm Trees,” a Morocco-set romance thriller which will be pitched at the Atlas Workshops, the industry sidebar running place alongside the Marrakech Film Festival.

The film marks the sophomore outing of Benm’Barek, an promising helmer who made her feature debut with “Sofia” which won best screenplay at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section.

Benm’Barek, who grew up between Morocco, France and Belgium, previously directed several short films, including “Jennah.”

Pyramide will handle both international sales and French distribution rights on “Behind the Palm Trees.” The movie is produced by Jean Brehat (“The Insult”) at Les Films du Veyrier and Emma Binet at Furyo in France, Souad Lamriki at Agora Films in Morocco and Olivier Dubois at Novak Prod in Belgium.

“Behind the Palm Trees” follows Mehdi, who leads an exemplary life in Marrakech with his family and Selma,...

As campaign to repeal Morocco's Article 490 - which makes it illegal for anyone to have sex outside of marriage - continues, the subject continues to crop up in films from the region, particularly with reference to pregnant women, who often come late to medical treatment or avoid it at all because if they present to a hospital to have their baby out of wedlock, they face arrest. Recent fictional treatments have included Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi's Sofia and Maryam Touzani's Adam and now Myriam Bakir considers the issue from a documentary standpoint.

She takes her camera inside the buildings of the Oum El Banine association in Agadir, which offers refuge and support to pregnant girls, while trying to broker reconciliation with their families. The organisation is run by Mahjouba Edbouche who we see going about her day-to-day business, along with their team as they offer a mix of forthright...

Around The World When You Were My AgeThe titles for the 48th International Film Festival Rotterdam are being announced in anticipation of the event running January 23 – February 3, 2018. We will update the program as new films are revealed.Tiger COMPETITIONSons of Denmark (Ulaa Salim)Take Me Somewhere Nice (Ena Sendijarević)Present.Perfect. (Shengze Zhu)Sheena667 (Grigory Dobrygin)Nona. If They Soak Me, I’ll Burn Them (Camila José Donoso)Koko-di Koko-da (Johannes Nyholm)Els dies que vindran (Carlos Marqués-Marcet)Bright Future COMPETITIONAlva (Ico Costa)Chèche lavi (Sam Ellison)De nuevo otra vez (Romina Paula)Doozy (Richard Squires)Dreissig (Simona Kostova)Ende der Saison (Elmar Imanov)Fabiana (Brunna Laboissière)The Gold-Laden Sheep & the Sacred Mountain (Ridham Janve)Heroes (Köken Ergun)Historia de mi nombre (Karin Cuyul)Last Night I Saw You Smiling (Kavich Neang)Lost Holiday (Michael Kerry Matthews/Thomas Matthews)Maggie (Yi Okseop)Mens (Isabelle Prim)No Data Plan (Miko Revereza...