Abla, a widow and mother to a 10-year-old girl, struggles to survive and give her child the best possible future. After the death of her husband, she starts a home-based business from her kitchen.
Maryam Touzani and her husband Nabil Ayouch (who is also her films’ producer) are both from Morocco. While the latter has already had 9 feature films under his belt (which include ALI ZAOUA: PRINCE OF THE STREETS, 2000, HORSES OF GOD, 2012), Touzani has only 2, she also dallies with performing in front of the camera (a prominent role in her husband’s RAZZIA 2017).
Both ADAM and THE BLUE CAFTAN debut in Cannes’s Un Certain Regard section, they are intimate character-based portrayals communing with universal feelings, self-contained in a handful of characters, and crafted with astonishing finesse.
ADAM is an encomium of female bond, motherhood and maternal struggling, which it doesn’t cheapen with schmaltz. Samia (Erradi) and Abla (Azabal), a widowed baker, are total strangers. Abla’s sympathy towards Samia takes some time to gel and has its own boundary. At first blush, like other people, Abla also frowns upon Samia’s unwed mother situation, only out of conscience, she cannot bear to see her sleep rough on the street, a tentative arrangement is proposed, a pregnant Samia can couch-surf for a few days, and Abla is obstinate enough to repudiate Samia’s help, she acts like a Good Samaritan, her charity doesn’t need to be rewarded in kind.
Abla’s flinty facade echoes Samia’s own obduracy, she is knocked up out of wedlock, hiding her pregnancy from her family, she has no intention to keep her child, all she hopes is that after the baby is delivered, she can return home as if nothing has ever happened. A third character is Warda (Belkhaouda), Abla’s school-age daughter, who is stereotyped as a moral compass to bridge the gap between the two adult women, to somewhat cutesy extent.
In time, the two women gradually open up to each other. Sharing a sisterly bond, Samia will jolt Abla out of her grief-ridden carapace to embrace music and possibly a new romance, reciprocally, Abla will tide her over during her travail, but leave her to do the cardinal decision, concerning the future of Adam, her newborn baby.
The film is crafted with a tacit understanding that it is a woman’s picture, the sterner sex is absolutely ancillary, almost nonexistent, no mentioning of the baby’s father, Abla’s deceased husband is nothing more than a vague shadow, what matters is the two women’s growing strength in withstanding the hardship, the uncertainty imposed in front of them, and the sinews are the undimmed humanity resides in every one of us.
THE BLUE CAFTAN tackles another taboo in the Moroccan society, closeted homosexuality. Mina (Azabal) and Halim (Bakri) are a childless, middle-aged couple running a tailor shop, Halim is a sublime artisan for his sartorial faculty, the latest order of a blue caftan demands him to work more, just as Mina’s health deteriorates (it only reveals later what afflicts her, which also hits an emotional apogee that deepens Halim and Mina’s connection).
Also, Halim is a homosexual and his guarded interaction with the shop’s new apprentice Youssef (Missioui, a standard knockout) intimates that mutual attraction is brewing in the air, but Touzani doesn’t deign to queer-bait, the homoerotic atmosphere is calibrated just to be perceptible, and THE BLUE CAFTAN is all about a marriage of convenience and the toll takes on both parties. Mina knows Halim’s sexual orientation, which explains why she casts a leery eye on Youssef and her hostility towards him.
Can there be true love between a gay man and a straight woman? THE BLUE CAFTAN contends for a more complex, compromised symbiosis: to Halim, what he has is an appreciation of Mina’s understanding and tolerance, the guilt towards his alterity and her year-long sacrifice; to Mina, it is obvious that she still desires him and suffers from the sexual inefficacy, but she endures without verbal complaint and manages to love him despite of that. Under such milieu, it is almost as good as a gay man could get.
In both films, their titles can be read as symbols of female sacrifice and dedication, Adam is the name of Samia’s newborn son, whom she must give up in order to regain a semblance of normal life and the superfine blue caftan is Halim’s final gift to Mina, for all her contribution and support. By obfuscating temporality, no specific time is pinpointed, Touzani’s films are timeless jewels and her acumen of capturing arresting palette, texture and emotion point blank is her claim to fame, THE BLUE CAFTAN is also graced by an eclectic score which is germane to Moroccan folkways.
Both films boast incredible performances, a gaunt-looking Azabal is a tower of pillar in both, her Abla’s bark is worse than her bite whereas her Mina exhibits an astonishing physical exertion. Nonetheless, in both films, she is pipped to the post by her co-stars, in ADAM, Erred is utterly mesmerizing in the money shots where Samia’s maternal affection imperceptibly switches into an infanticidal impulse, her outpourings are so convincing, in a fleeting moment, spectators are petrified by what seems happening! In THE BLUE CAFTAN, it is Bakri who remains as a constant source of emotive expressions, his Halim is a taciturn magnet that grabs audience by the throat, he is the quintessential man who needs a substantial hug, and being apprised that there is no need to carry all the burden on his shoulders, no matter how manly it makes him look.
referential entries: Denis Villeneuve’s INCENDIES (2010, 7.9/10), Michael Mayer’s OUT IN THE DARK (2012, 7.9/10), Eran Kolirin’s THE BANDS VISIT (2007, 7.7/10).
一部双女主，没有男主的电影，名字叫亚当。
这个很快就引起了我的兴趣。想起了上一部《燃烧女子的画像》。
这部也是很明显的女性和女权主义的视角。而且是非常温柔的女性主义视角。
片中虽然很少描绘男性形象，但影片里面的男性都是可爱的。
她切入的角度在于当女性失去了男性的依靠，或当有幼小的男性需要依靠女性时，女性的独立与坚韧。以及在这个过程中，女性需要的互相帮助。夏娃不是亚当的肋骨，亚当的附属，而是亚当的创造者。
看两个寻常的摩洛哥女人生活的起起落落以及她们面临的挑战。每个人物都那么饱满，都像是有自己的生命力，而非虚构的人物。 除了有一些强行戏剧冲突的地方稍稍有点僵硬和尴尬。
摄影很美，灯光很美，像是油画一般。
带你去看各种旅行者的照片里看不到的卡萨布兰卡。人们的生活里，没有大片蓝色的墙，有的是低矮灰白街道，杂乱无章的天线。但是人们就在这样的脏、乱又充满了烟火气的环境中享受生活。
屏幕里面包的香气都要夺屏而出了。
Maryam Touzani and her husband Nabil Ayouch (who is also her films’ producer) are both from Morocco. While the latter has already had 9 feature films under his belt (which include ALI ZAOUA: PRINCE OF THE STREETS, 2000, HORSES OF GOD, 2012), Touzani has only 2, she also dallies with performing in front of the camera (a prominent role in her husband’s RAZZIA 2017).
Both ADAM and THE BLUE CAFTAN debut in Cannes’s Un Certain Regard section, they are intimate character-based portrayals communing with universal feelings, self-contained in a handful of characters, and crafted with astonishing finesse.
ADAM is an encomium of female bond, motherhood and maternal struggling, which it doesn’t cheapen with schmaltz. Samia (Erradi) and Abla (Azabal), a widowed baker, are total strangers. Abla’s sympathy towards Samia takes some time to gel and has its own boundary. At first blush, like other people, Abla also frowns upon Samia’s unwed mother situation, only out of conscience, she cannot bear to see her sleep rough on the street, a tentative arrangement is proposed, a pregnant Samia can couch-surf for a few days, and Abla is obstinate enough to repudiate Samia’s help, she acts like a Good Samaritan, her charity doesn’t need to be rewarded in kind.
Abla’s flinty facade echoes Samia’s own obduracy, she is knocked up out of wedlock, hiding her pregnancy from her family, she has no intention to keep her child, all she hopes is that after the baby is delivered, she can return home as if nothing has ever happened. A third character is Warda (Belkhaouda), Abla’s school-age daughter, who is stereotyped as a moral compass to bridge the gap between the two adult women, to somewhat cutesy extent.
In time, the two women gradually open up to each other. Sharing a sisterly bond, Samia will jolt Abla out of her grief-ridden carapace to embrace music and possibly a new romance, reciprocally, Abla will tide her over during her travail, but leave her to do the cardinal decision, concerning the future of Adam, her newborn baby.
The film is crafted with a tacit understanding that it is a woman’s picture, the sterner sex is absolutely ancillary, almost nonexistent, no mentioning of the baby’s father, Abla’s deceased husband is nothing more than a vague shadow, what matters is the two women’s growing strength in withstanding the hardship, the uncertainty imposed in front of them, and the sinews are the undimmed humanity resides in every one of us.
THE BLUE CAFTAN tackles another taboo in the Moroccan society, closeted homosexuality. Mina (Azabal) and Halim (Bakri) are a childless, middle-aged couple running a tailor shop, Halim is a sublime artisan for his sartorial faculty, the latest order of a blue caftan demands him to work more, just as Mina’s health deteriorates (it only reveals later what afflicts her, which also hits an emotional apogee that deepens Halim and Mina’s connection).
Also, Halim is a homosexual and his guarded interaction with the shop’s new apprentice Youssef (Missioui, a standard knockout) intimates that mutual attraction is brewing in the air, but Touzani doesn’t deign to queer-bait, the homoerotic atmosphere is calibrated just to be perceptible, and THE BLUE CAFTAN is all about a marriage of convenience and the toll takes on both parties. Mina knows Halim’s sexual orientation, which explains why she casts a leery eye on Youssef and her hostility towards him.
Can there be true love between a gay man and a straight woman? THE BLUE CAFTAN contends for a more complex, compromised symbiosis: to Halim, what he has is an appreciation of Mina’s understanding and tolerance, the guilt towards his alterity and her year-long sacrifice; to Mina, it is obvious that she still desires him and suffers from the sexual inefficacy, but she endures without verbal complaint and manages to love him despite of that. Under such milieu, it is almost as good as a gay man could get.
In both films, their titles can be read as symbols of female sacrifice and dedication, Adam is the name of Samia’s newborn son, whom she must give up in order to regain a semblance of normal life and the superfine blue caftan is Halim’s final gift to Mina, for all her contribution and support. By obfuscating temporality, no specific time is pinpointed, Touzani’s films are timeless jewels and her acumen of capturing arresting palette, texture and emotion point blank is her claim to fame, THE BLUE CAFTAN is also graced by an eclectic score which is germane to Moroccan folkways.
Both films boast incredible performances, a gaunt-looking Azabal is a tower of pillar in both, her Abla’s bark is worse than her bite whereas her Mina exhibits an astonishing physical exertion. Nonetheless, in both films, she is pipped to the post by her co-stars, in ADAM, Erred is utterly mesmerizing in the money shots where Samia’s maternal affection imperceptibly switches into an infanticidal impulse, her outpourings are so convincing, in a fleeting moment, spectators are petrified by what seems happening! In THE BLUE CAFTAN, it is Bakri who remains as a constant source of emotive expressions, his Halim is a taciturn magnet that grabs audience by the throat, he is the quintessential man who needs a substantial hug, and being apprised that there is no need to carry all the burden on his shoulders, no matter how manly it makes him look.
referential entries: Denis Villeneuve’s INCENDIES (2010, 7.9/10), Michael Mayer’s OUT IN THE DARK (2012, 7.9/10), Eran Kolirin’s THE BANDS VISIT (2007, 7.7/10).
这个亚当摩洛哥电影,算阿拉伯世界难得的女性题材的佳作,这就是两个女性相互治愈的过程,两个女性相对于都是失去男性庇护甚至抛弃的设定,一个未婚怀孕,一个单亲妈妈,在阿拉伯伊斯兰父权宗教色彩的世界要想生活是很艰辛的,通过两者互相的碰撞和生活,她们都从彼此中寻找到继续生活的意义,或者可以称之为善意温暖之光,去治愈弥合内心深处那一道道的心灵创伤,相信之后的生活她们会更加坚强和独立,会更加热爱自己的生活.