Moroccan director Hakeem Belabbas was preparing to shoot his second feature film Why, O'Sea? based on a written script, when he was surprised to find that the reality he was trying to portray was much stronger than his script.

The reality of young men who fish by primitive means on the coast of Casablanca prompted him to rewrite his script, before putting it aside, and let reality speak for itself.

He started with amateur actors who played their own characters with their own language, and ended the film with the live testimony of a woman who lost her husband and two sons in the sea.

Watching the film for the first time, we feel confused. We can't classify it according to the usual cinematic categories. The film is both fictional and documentary. It starts with a story, and gradually becomes very realistic.

When asked about that, Belabbas says that there is no distinction between reality and fiction as far as he's concerned, as they are two sides of the same coin.

This may be considered a justification, but it is a brave confession that art can't surround reality, or that reality always escapes the attempt the control it. That can delete all traditional borders, whether within each art, or between arts.

This film reminds us of another Moroccan film, Aliam Aliam, directed by Ahmad Al Manouni in 1978. It was also played by peasants acting their own characters.

Thirty years after this landmark film, we can say that regardless of its beauty, it has become a real document about the social history of Morocco. The Moroccan youth's wish to migrate to European countries, considering it a new Eldorado, still stands witness to this fact.

This is why Belabbas realises that with his answer, he exceeds his creative role, to give us a live testimony of urbane Moroccan youth, who risk their lives in the sea to provide the necessities of life, six years into the 21st century.

By Mustafa Al Mesnawi

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