She chose her cage, then burned it down. Colonial Morocco's most forbidden love triangle.
In a small town in Spanish Morocco, old Ricardo, who runs a café, lives with his daughter, Conchita. She believes that Ricardo is her father. In reality, he took her in at the age of eighteen months in a douar abandoned during the conquest. One day a Berber chief, Tamar, sees Conchita, tells her that she is from his tribe and wants to take her away. She rejects it, then accepts later to find that Muslim civilization is incompatible with the Christian training she received. She escapes and succeeds in obtaining forgiveness from Tamar. A French officer from the Intelligence Service offers to collect it.
Cinematography
Morocco shot like a fever dream you can't wake from.
Acting
Carletti's face carries three films worth of conflict.
Costume
The veil as metaphor, weapon, and trap.
Director
Jacques Séverac
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot in actual Spanish Morocco during late colonial rule; the production itself was a French colonial project filming colonial narratives.
Séverac's career collapsed after this—partly for making Conchita's 'renegade' choice look almost rational, not tragic.
FR
