It opens this Friday, January 23, for a one week exclusive theatrical run at Film Society, Lincoln Center... It's hard to pinpoint exactly where director Abdellah Taia's "Salvation Army" goes wrong, mostly because it had so much going for it to begin with. Based on Taia's own successful autobiographical novel of the same name, the film attempts to tell a story not often seen on screen, that of a young gay man growing up in Morocco, trying to reconcile his own desires with his obligations to his family. Actor Said Mrini plays the young Abdellah, a boy of 15 who lives in a small house where he seems to fade into the background in a household dominated by several...
- 1/21/2015
- by Zeba Blay
- ShadowAndAct
Homosexuality is outlawed in Morocco, but young men walking down the street holding hands in friendship is a common sight. Hiding from the law and the gaze of neighbors (though not always family) are boys like the teenage Abdellah (Said Mrini), who gets talked into hurried outdoor trysts by older men who show him little affection after, or even during, the deed. After one such encounter, Abdellah steals for himself a rare moment of solitude, picking the petals off a flower: "He loves me, he loves me not." The impossibility of such a love haunts the coming-of-age drama Salvation Army, writer-turned-filmmaker Abdellah Taïa's lovely and elliptical adaptation of his autobiographical novel about growing up gay, effeminate, and powerless in Morocco. Though the fi...
- 1/21/2015
- Village Voice
It's hard to pinpoint exactly where director Abdellah Taia's Salvation Army goes wrong, mostly because it had so much going for it to begin with. Based on Taia's own successful autobiographical novel of the same name, the film attempts to tell a story not often seen on screen, that of a young gay man growing up in Morocco, trying to reconcile his own desires with his obligations to his family.Actor Said Mrini plays the young Abdellah, a boy of 15 who lives in a small house where he seems to fade into the background in a household dominated by several sisters and the constant tensions between his overbearing mother and surly father. There's also his older brother Slimane (Amine...
- 3/28/2014
- by Zeba Blay
- ShadowAndAct
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