Abel Aflam

Shocked by French président Nicolas Sarkozy’s claim that the African man has no history, filmmaker Cheikh N’diaye sets out to prove his royal heritage – tracing his grandfather’s path from Mauritania to Senegal, homeland of his warrior ancestors.

In Morocco, unmarried women who become pregnant risk a prison sentence. They often don’t even dare to tell their families, for fear of exclusion and rejection. The Oum El Banine association in Agadir is there to support them, under the inspiring leadership of 62-year-old feminist Mahjouba Edbouche. She takes the girls and women under her wing, providing shelter, education, and legal assistance. To try and secure them a safe home, she also seeks ways for the young mothers to mend the relationships with their parents.

In the National Archives of the Kingdom of Morocco, thousands of files await inventory, including those of victims of political violence during the Years of Lead. Among them is Fatna El Bouih, who was disappeared and tortured as a 21-year-old student in the 1970s. Now 67, she continues her fight, pursuing her “dream of change,” active in prisons, advocating for gender equality, and sharing her experience with Syrian survivors of Sednaya prison. Fatna, a Woman Named Rachid follows her activism in Casablanca, in particular at a film festival at Oukacha prison, and blends past and present to portray El Bouih’s journey as a pioneer of women’s engagement and her intimate struggle to exist.