INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS, BENEATH A MOTHER'S FEET TELLS THE STORY OF WEDAD, A SINGLE MOTHER IN MOROCCO, WHO FINDS HERSELF AT A DIFFICULT JUNCTURE IN HER LIFE. WEAVING CINEMA VERITÉ WITH SURREALISM, WE OBSERVE WEDAD'S INTERNAL STRUGGLE AS SHE FACES AN UNTHINKABLE DECISION: TO WALK AWAY FROM HER LIFE AND HER CHILDREN'S FUTURES.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
As a young woman in her native Morocco, my mother found herself stuck. A divorcée, raising two young children alone while living in her parents’ modest one-room bungalow, she struggled to envision a future for herself. In the midst of her emotional turmoil, she secretly sold the gold bangles from her dowry, secured a passport, and took a fateful step away from everything she knew… her children included.
This film is a reconstruction of the thirty-six hours leading up to that moment of departure, an attempt to unearth the labyrinthine emotions she must undoubtedly have experienced.
Beneath a Mother’s Feet is, in part, an inquiry into the narratives that have been orally woven and reshaped through generations of my family. It’s a story that happened before I was born, and yet its significance has rippled forward in time, shaping lives (including my own) in direct and lasting ways. What my mother lived through didn’t just happen before me… it set the course for everything that followed. Here I am, more than fifty years later, representing those events on film as a way of making an incoherent past coherent… a tool to explore internal realities and truth, and perhaps to hopefully move toward healing and reconciliation.
Beneath a Mother’s Feet is also a call to recentre the lives of the matriarchs in my family; women who were compelled into fated lives of domesticity and childrearing, which were also often characterised by hardship. But their lives were also marked by courage and tenacity and, in their own ways, defiance against the traditional expectations of their genders.
It is a story about the boundaries of maternal ambivalence and self-discovery, built with scraps of memory and imagination. The film opens up the difficult space between love and leaving, between sacrifice and surviving, offering both a mirror and a bridge between the past and our present, the said and the unsaid, the visible and the unseen.
As the writer and director, I didn’t just want to tell a story, I wanted to create space for reflection. While the film is a tribute to my mother, it also explores that painful, often unspoken juncture where personal aspiration collides with familial and societal expectation. A mother walking away from her children may seem unforgivable… but it can also be an act of defiant bravery. I wanted to honour the tension and weight of that decision.
APPROACH
ERASURE & RECONSTRUCTION
Beneath a Mother’s Feet is not a straightforward retelling but a reconstruction of the past. Some elements came directly from what was handed down to me - my mother’s wedding portrait with her husband’s face scribbled out in blue biro, which I uncovered as a child by slowly rubbing away the ink, later reconstructed and placed into the film; stories of a dinner table conversation, of Wedad embroidering at home, of selling her dowry gold. Other moments came through memory coloured by imagination - like her waking to henna-stained hands, something she experienced both as a child and again years later, surrounded by superstition and the shadow of the djinn. Such stories remind me that the metaphysical has always sat alongside the everyday, shaping how people make sense of their lives.
Some things were erased deliberately, some lost to time, and others never spoken aloud. To reach for them I combined fragments with invention, working with both professional and non-professional actors, asking them to inhabit their roles through improvisation and personal identification. Surreal touches allowed me to suggest what words could not - the weight of feeling, the atmosphere of fear or longing, the presence of what cannot be easily explained.
The film is shaped as much by what remains as by what is missing. It does not seek to restore every detail, but to stay with the truths that emerge in the gaps - between memory and forgetting, silence and testimony, loss and invention.
“A masterfully crafted, thought-provoking and visually captivating work of art.”
MovieFest UK ★★★★★
“A bold, bare and daring film.”
UK Film Review ★★★★★
“A richly layered, surreal narrative.”
Hastings Rocks International Film Festival
“A strong and poignant film.”
Rebecca O’Brien, BAFTA-winning Producer
“A breath of fresh air. A story of many, yet unique in its sentiment and delivery.”
Souad Talsi MBE, Al-Hasaniya
“Truly captivating.”
Film Carnage ★★★★½
“A testament to the beauty and depth of Moroccan stories—a magnificent achievement.”
Youssef Kerkour, BAFTA-winning British-Moroccan Actor
“A luminously flawless, gracefully assured piece of work.”
Michel Faber, Author of Under the Skin
Principal Team
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Nisrine Adam
WEDAD (CAST)
A native of Casablanca, Morocco, Nisrine Adam is a rising star in the world of cinema. Nisrine graduated from the renowned Cours Florent drama school in Paris in 2016. She has since appeared in a number of dramas for both the big and small screens, notably No Man's Land, alongside Mélanie Thierry; the SAS Rogue Heroes TV drama series; Kidnapped, directed by Seong Hun Kim; and the acclaimed Netflix TV show Viking Valhalla, directed by Hannah Quinn. -
Elias Suhail
WRITER-DIRECTOR
Elias is a British-Moroccan writer and filmmaker whose work explores the complexities of the human condition, liminalities and those who exist on the cultural margins. He has written work for the stage, as well as had his work featured on BBC Sounds and published in The New Statesman. Beneath a Mother’s Feet is Elias’s screenwriting and directorial debut.
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Arij Al-Soltan
PRODUCER
Arij Al-Soltan is a British-Iraqi producer and documentary director whose films seek to offer alternative narratives and provoke a sense of self-introspection. Her credits include the critically acclaimed C4, Rose d’Or nominated drama series Baghdad Central, documentaries Korean Lovers in Baghdad and Safia, and a short fiction film Tabbouleh & Pie. Arij works with a number of emerging British, Middle Eastern and international talents to produce films that offer unexplored perspectives. -
Will Hanke
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Will Hanke’s foundation of experience came from studying fine art and working in film labs early in his career. He has since directed his talents towards shaping the visual narratives of high-end television dramas, including Ghosts, Feel Good and Starstruck. His unique blend of experiences serves as the driving force behind his innovative and evocative approach to storytelling and he is passionate about working with filmmakers who have a passion for originality and pushing limits.
CAST & CREW
Nisrine Adam
Fatiha Zouine
Hamid Sabek
Zoubida Zineddine
Rawane Jbira
Layth Giudani
Elias Suhail
Arj Al-Soltan
Will Hanke
Hajar Madad
Othmane Moubarik
Ranya Targhy
Mounir Atta
Fatima-Zahra Sabili
Hamza Tassouka
Mohammed Maslouhi
Ibrahim Hathi
Ouassim Maslouhi
Soufiane Ousaadi
Maria Jittou
Abderazzak Amouzoune
Mohammed Waaziz
Reda Daabal
Mourad Kamel
Yassine Yarziz
Ayoub Kachani
Adil Hiyani
Abdelmoughit
Sadrati Hassan
Chekki Achir
Mohammed Najib
Wedad
Rahma
Haytham
Neighbour
Bouchra
Marwan
Written & Directed by
Producer
Director of Photography
Line Producer
Production Coordinator
1st Assistant Director
2nd Assistant Director
1st AC
2nd AC
Gaffer
Sparks
Production Designer
Hair & Make-Up Designer
Sound Recordist
Assistant Sound Recordist
Casting
Location Manager Location
Assistant Set Manager Animal Wrangler
Catering
Drivers
Editor
Composer
Sound Mix
Re-Recording Mixer
Dialogue Editor
FX Editor
Song by
VFX
VFX Supervisor
VFX Producer
DI Facility
DI Producer
Colourist
Assistant Colourist
Titles & Credits
Stills Photographer
Executive Producers for BFI Network
Executive Producer
BFI Project Coordinator
Natalia Gozdzik
James Bulley
Formosa Trident
Howard Bargroff
Ed Boot
Sam Day
Brahim El Alami - Yali Sortek Bain Ainia
Ripple & Roll
Josh Bower
Steven Meiklejohn
Harbor
Munah Yahkup
Jateen Patel
Katie Linard
The Motion Design Company
Amine Jouari
Nicole Davies
Thomas Whightman
Saeed Taji Farouky
Niamh Coogan
A Special Thanks To
Arab & Fatima El Alami
Jessica Jones
Said Hamich
Aysser Assmerrai
Lina Al Timimi
Centre Cinematographic Marocaine
The Municipality of Casablanca
VMI
Pixipixel
Heritage International Flights
Barney Production
La Prod
NG Pro Rent
A heartfelt thanks to the families of Rawane Jbira, Layth Guidani, the wider supporting cast, as well as our supporters.
VERY MANY THANKS YOU TO ALL OF OUR SUPPORTERS
Ado Yoshizaki Cassuto
Agatha Ezzedine
Alex Goff
Alice Troughton
Amal Laiti
Amel Mahdi
Angela Terence
Anna Higgs
Anne France
Becka White
Ben Boucher
Ben Mayfield
Betelhem Habtegabriel
Brendan O'Neill
Carina Alves
Carmel Maloney
Cath Boyle
Cecilia Rodriguez Estevez
Charlie Hinchcliff
Charlie Phillips
Chris Michael
Cleone Clarke
Colm Connaughton
Daniel Nussbaumer
Daphne Alexander
David Evans
Dee Collier
Diana Schultz
Emmalie El Fadli
Eugenia Capula
Fatima Serghini
Frances du Pille
Gemma Addy
Ghita Zine
Hassan Abdulrazzak
Helen Scott
Ibtisam Belola
Immanuel von Bennigsen
Issy Oakes
Jackie Hartley
Jamie Canton
Jeannine Dowling-Jones
Joanna Hogg
Joe Kotroczo
Joe Tunmer
Katerina Michail
Kathrein Guenther
Kathryn O'Connor
Kerim Silajdzic
Kerry Vandersteen
Kosta Papanicolas
Laila Alj
Larisa Mordovino
Laura Bartley
Lissy Kowalski
Lisya Yafet
Martha Howe Douglas
May Ziadé
Melika Suhail
Michele Woods
Michelle Duncan
Mike Manzi
Mohammed Abdur-Rahman
Momina Ali
Monika Whiteman
Nada Atieh
Nadeam Millward
Nahar Sadayo
Nathan Altai
Nirvana Plante
Nisrine Zenakhi
Oliver Parkin
Peter Sheridan
Peter Storey
Rachael Castell
Radouane Oudrhiri
Raghad Chaar
Rebecca Bruce
Romola Garai
Sabira Hud
Saeed Taji Farouky
Safaa Ksaani
Safia Lamrani
Saira Chaudry
Salima Bouyarden
Samer Sultan
Sarah Mooney
Shuhub Al-Janabi
Sima Ghosh
Simon Channon
Souad Talsi
Stephane Collange
Steve Smith
Sunny Dimitriadou
Tee Selva
Tessa David
Tom Harman
Tom Jones
Yassine Mkhichen
Zoë Jones
39 WINS AND HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Always Late TV Movie Awards
Honourable Mention
Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival
Winner: Best Short Film (Sept 2023)
Bahrain Film Festival
Winner: Best Actress
The Bay International Film Festival
Winner: Best Editing
Breaking TV Film Festival
Nominee
Brighton Rocks International Film Festival
Winner: Best Cinematography
Bristol Independent Film Festival
Winner: Best Foreign Film
Budapest Indie Film Festival
Nominee: Best Short Film
Canadian Cinematography Awards (CaCA)
Winner: Film of the Month
Winner: Best Cinematography
Winner: Best Director
Winner: Best Original Score
Winner: Best Producer
Winner: Best Editing
Casablanca Arab Film Festival
Nominee: Best Short Film
Dumbo Film Festival
Winner: Best Short Narrative
European Cinematography Awards (ECA)
Winner: Best Short Film
Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival Special Mention: Best Int’l Live Action Short Film
Exit 6 Film Festival
Nominee: Best Cinematography
Festival du Film PanAfricain Cannes
Winner: Dikalo Award for Best Short Film (Drama)
Festival National du Film de Tanger
Nominee: Best Short Film
Hastings Rocks International Film Festival
Winner: Best Cinematography
Imagine This Women's International Film Festival Honourable Mention
International Film & Heritage Festival, Midelt
Special Mention
Lift-Off Season Awards 2023
Winner: Best First-Time Filmmaker
Winner: Audience Choice Award
Marrakech Short Film Festival 5th Edition
Nominee: Nakhil Price for Best Picture
Nominee: Bahja Prize for Best Actress (Nisrine Adam)
Midnight Soul Film Festival
Honourable Mention
Muslim International Film Festival, Toronto
Winner: Best Cinematography
New York Cinematography Awards (NYCA)
Winner: Best Short Film
Novella Film Festival
Nominee: Best Fiction Short
Panorama International Indie Film Festival Honourable Mention: Best Short Film
Honourable Mention: Best Cinematography
Honourable Mention: Best Actress
Pluriart Film Festival
Winner: Best Cinematography
Honourable Mention: Best Short Film
Rabat International Author Film Festival
Nominee: Best Short Film (Moroccan Shorts Category)
Red Movie Awards
Winner: Best Actress (Summer Edition 2023
Rome Independent Cinema Festival
Nominee: Best Short Film
Rome Prisma FIlm Awards
Winner: Best Sound (Nov 2023)
Winner: Best Editing (Nov 2023)
Nominee: Best of Fest (Nov 2023)
SHORT to the Point (STTP+)
Winner: Best Narrative (Sept-Oct 2023)
Winner: Best Leading Actress (Sept-Oct 2023)
Winner: Best Cinematography (Sept-Oct 2023)
Soho London Independent Film Festival
Winner: Best Actress
Nominee: Best Drama
Nominee: Best of British
Tangier Film Festival
Winner: The Golden Cave Award for Best Fiction Short
Toronto Arab Film Festival
Winner: Juthour Award for Most Promising Filmmaker
Vancouver Independent MovieMaker Awards
Winner: Best Short Film
For a complete list of festival official selections, as well as upcoming releases, visit the Exhibition section.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Contact Info
Larsa Films Ltd.
Arij Al-Soltan, Producer
arij.alsoltan@gmail.com
Elias Suhail, Writer & Director
elias@suhail.tv
TECHNICAL INFO
Running Time: 15:31
Exhibition Format: DCP; ProRes 422HQ
Country of Origin: UK/Morocco
Language: Darija Arabic
Subtitles: English, French
Camera: Sony Venice
Aspect Ratio: 2:39:1
Film Colour: Colour
PRESS KIT
Available here.