HEADBANG LULLABY | UK PREMIERE

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HEADBANG LULLABY
UK PREMIERE
Dir. Hicham Lasri
Morocco. 2017. 112 mins. Arabic with English subtitles.

Hicham Lasri (The Sea Is Behind, Starve Your Dog) continues his surreally captivating exploration of Morocco’s history in this satirical portrait of social absurdity. On the day after Morocco made football history by beating Portugal in the 1986 world cup, an embittered government official, Daoud, is sent by his dissatisfied superiors to spend a day on a bridge between two hostile neighbourhoods. Here, he is to await the expected but by no means guaranteed arrival of King Hussan II. Daoud meets a host of unusual characters and confronts his involvement in the bloody ‘bread riots’ of ’81, before the euphoria of the football win transcends the abstract shadow of the monarchy.

 Eligible for the Film Africa 2017 Audience Award

Hicham Lasri

One of the new generation of Moroccan film-makers, Hicham Lasri was born in Casablanca. As a young law student, he became interested in film as a language and made his first forays into writing. Fascinated by the art form, he enrolled in the School of Publicity and Television where he developed a world vision based on Casablanca’s everyday reality and his own approach to ?lm-making. In 2010, his first feature, “The End” was released to critical acclaim. A year later, Hicham Lasri wrote and directed “C’est eux les chiens” (They Are the Dogs). This unconventional look at the Arab Spring demonstrations spoke to both occidental and Arab filmgoers. The film did very well in international film festivals and was reviewed by a large panel of professional critics.