Bouchra (2025)

Meriem Bennani, Orian Barki Italy, Morocco, US | 2025 | 83 min | Rating To Be Advised A queer artist tries to engage with her avoidant mother in this inventively animated film. Moroccan artist Bouchra navigates professional and personal challenges in New York while working on an autobiographical film and visiting her family in Casablanca. Structured around actual phone conversations with Bennani and her mother Aicha, the film explores their fond yet fraught relationship, complicated by tensions around Bouchra’s sexuality. Characters inspired by the filmmakers’ friends and family are rendered into animals using various animation styles. This anthromorphism refracts reality and fiction, and intimate interactions are portrayed through layers of confession and performance. Multilingual dialogue and a sound design incorporating North African music contribute to this vibrant metafilmic experience.