CHIKHA
France, Morocco I 2024 I Arabic dialogue with English subtitles l 25 min
ABOUT FILM
Chikha (2024), directed by Ayoub Layoussifi and Zahoua Raji, is a Moroccan short film that tells the story of 17-year-old Fatine, who lives in Azemmour with her mother Nadia, a professional “chikha” (traditional Moroccan singer and dancer), and her grandfather. After completing her baccalaureate exams, Fatine faces a difficult decision: to follow her family’s artistic legacy or pursue a more conventional life with her boyfriend Youssef, who disapproves of her cultural heritage.
The film was showcased in the Shorts Competition at the 2024 Red Sea International Film Festival, where it garnered attention for its exploration of cultural identity and personal choice.
PACKAGE 1
Screening: May 2nd 18:00 Panora 2
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CAST & CREDITS
Director: Zahoua Raji, Ayoub Layoussifi
Writer: Yamina Zarou, Ayoub Layoussifi
Cast: Rita Kribi, Hatim Seddiki, Sanae Gueddar, Hassan Boudour, Youssef
Dop: Xavier Castro
Producer: David Azoulay, Najib Derkaoui
ZAHOUA RAJI
Born in Brussels in 1980 to Moroccan immigrant parents, she grew up in a large family. She attended Catholic schools and received a very strict education. To distinguish herself and find her place in this environment, Zahoua took refuge behind a camera. She joined the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in 2000. She honed her eye and developed her style. For 5 years, she worked as a chief makeup artist and costume designer on Moroccan television series, feature films, and short films. Passionate about fashion and literature, and a fan of classic films from the 1980s and 1990s, she embarked on a series of trips around the world (Lebanon, USA, Morocco…) to photograph the women and men of these territories. The artist returned with a series of photographic portraits. She is currently preparing her first photo exhibition in two cities: Paris and Casablanca. She currently lives in Paris.
Zahoua has great admiration for Moroccan singers and dancers, the “Chikhates”. She undertook research and conducted interviews with them in 2019. From these stories and encounters, her desire to write the story of Fatine was born. Her artistic collaboration with Ayoub Layoussifi was born out of the love story they share in real life. Since March 2020, they have been co-writing the screenplay for “Chikha” with Yamina ZAROU.
AYOUB LAYOUSSIFI
Born in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1983, Ayoub Layoussifi is an actor, writer and director. On his arrival in France in 2002, and after passing through classes préparatoires and an M1 in Computer
Science, he trained at the Actors Studio in Paris and obtained a Master Professionnel at the Université Paris VIII à Saint-Denis in Directing and Creation in 2010. From documentary to fiction, he worked between France and Morocco. In 2012, he wrote and directed an intimate portrait of Mohamed Lamouri, a musician who plays in the Parisian subway. The documentary Dis-moi Mohammed… received several awards. In 2017, he directed Tikitat-ASoulima, co-written with screenwriter Hadrien KRASKER, a short fiction film that received a financial contribution from the French Cinema Center. After its World Premiere at the 2017 Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, the film had forty official selections and some fifteen awards worldwide, including Best Short Film in Africa at the African Movie Academy Awards 2018, the film joined the “Nuits en Or 2019” selection made by the French Académie des César. Since 2012, Ayoub has also
been an educational and artistic facilitator (cinema and theater) with middle-school students in the Paris region. In 2019, he joined the teaching team as a lecturer at the Institut International de l’Image et du
Son (3IS) – supervising the writing of fiction and the shooting of 3rd-year Narrative.