Le Miracle du Saint Inconnu [Fiction]
Alaa Eddine Aljem
Morocco | 2019 | 100 min
Language : Darija
Subtitles : French, German
In the middle of the desert, with the police on his tail, Amine buries his booty in a tomb. When he returns ten years later, the arid hill has become a holy site for the worshippers of the Unknown Saint. Amine will have to deal with the inhabitants of the village in order to retrieve his money. This fable with true undertones is Alaa Eddine Aljem’s first film.
The film begins full throttle: Amine is being pursued by the police in the middle of the desert. He quickly hides his loot at the top of a hill and disguises it as a tomb. Ten years later, a mausoleum has been built at the site of the tomb. At the foot of the hill, a small village welcomes pilgrims who come from around the country to worship the unknown saint who is buried there. Le Miracle du Saint Inconnu, with its undertones of the western genre, is a fable about religion and local beliefs, money and disorientation. With this his first feature film, which received acclaim during the International Critics’ Week at Cannes in 2019, Moroccan filmmaker Alaa Eddine Aljem inscribes his filmmaking in an area of fiction that is deeply rooted in a kind of pared-down reality. His ever-inspired direction reveals a taste for the absurd. Made up of silences and stretches of dead time that serve only to highlight the pure comedy of the zany situations into which Amine gets himself, this film announces the talent of a filmmaker with an equally skilful grasp of humour and social critique.
Madeline Robert
Le Miracle du Saint Inconnu, 2019
The Desert Fish, 2015
Tribute, 2011
National Education, 2009
Ritual, 2008
