HIBAPRESS – I. El-Smlali
The Moroccan cinematic scene has entered a new stage of controversy after the film "The Exiled from God's Mercy" by director Hicham Lasri was referred to the judiciary, following an official complaint accusing the work of violating legal regulations and recognized standards.
This step comes to deepen the discussion about the limits of cinematic creativity and freedom of expression, as the competent authorities are currently considering the legality of the content presented, amid a sharp divergence in positions between those who see the judicial procedure as a protection of societal values, and those who consider it a restriction on contemporary artistic vision.
Director Hicham Lasri chose to interact with this situation with a kind of black humor, inviting his friends via a digital post to bring him "Gaza oranges" if he were to be imprisoned, which gave the case dimensions that exceeded the walls of the courts to reach public opinion platforms.
In a related context, director Abdelilah El-Johari sparked widespread controversy as he announced his "non-solidarity" with Hicham Lasri in a sarcastic manner that, in its essence, criticizes the attack the film is subjected to.
El-Johari considered that the work deserves repeated viewing for its bold intellectual discourse and its unique cinematic style that avoids flattery and ready-made societal concepts, praising the aesthetics of the frames and the professionalism of the editing that leaves no room for chance.
In his speech, El-Johari criticized the recourse of some to the courts to pursue art, at a time when it would have been preferable to "file lawsuits against the sovereignty of ugliness and bullying," considering that the film cannot shake the faith of believers, but rather gives the opportunity for those he described as "enemies of enlightenment" to launch their raids on art and beauty.
El-Johari concluded his position with statements that reflected the bitterness of the artistic reality, considering that Lasri and his producer Lamia Chraibi "deserve what is happening to them" because they chose the cinema of visual depth that annoys the advocates of "clean cinema" and those immersed in "the whiteness of lack of understanding."
The Moroccan director described his announcement of "non-solidarity" as a practical application of the policy of silence in a "moment immersed in the swamp of absurdity," criticizing the transformation of silence into wisdom in a time of attack on the mind and intellectual fields.
With this, El-Johari's position joins the series of responses that see the case of "The Exiled from God's Mercy" as a real test for the future of the seventh art in Morocco.
