In the medina of the Moroccan city of Salés, Mina and Halim run a traditional tailor shop. While Halim is devoted to making elaborate embroideries in the back room, Mina takes care of the whiny customers. The waiting time is too long, the prices are too high. Those who want a caftan of this quality have to be patient, Mina responds. Halim is the gentle artist, Mina is the fighter who has his back. They suit each other well, laugh a lot, are attentive and gentle. But Halim has a secret that he takes with him to the hamam, in the lockable cabins, where other men with the same desires wait. When young tailor Youssef starts his training with Halim, Mina and Halim have to face the unspoken, because she notices the attraction between Halim and Youssef.

Calmly and poetically, Moroccan actress and director Maryam Touzani deals with a taboo in Moroccan society, where homosexual acts in public are criminalized. What happens in private is under a cloak of silence, on the other hand. Touzani lays this coat gently to the side. She doesn‘t depict jealousy dramas or social tragedies, but rather a love story where three people find each other. Like in her film debut ADAM, Touzani works with Loubna Azabel once again, who gives Mina an infectious vitality. Rather traditional in imagery and narrative rhythm, THE BLUE CAFTAN is most captivating because of its attentiveness to the characters. Maryam Touzani directs her film with the detail and patience of Halim making his caftans and has received multiple nominations and awards for it already, among them in Cannes and the Marrakesh Film Festival.

Clarissa Lempp (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy