Rabii (Springtime), a young transvestite dancer is employed by Kacem, a seasoned traveling showman who owns a lottery stand. The story takes place in the villages of southern Morocco hard hit by drought. A story of traveling showmen, of the last traveling showmen; a disappearing breed of entertainers.
Three destinies are briefly crossed: that of Rabii with his dreams of a better place, of Kacem, who is sick and seeks to free himself of a dark past, and of Kacem's only son, Larbi, a former boxer, ex-convict, a violent man and a pathological liar who ends up all alone.
The story is a bittersweet homage to the last traveling showmen of the Kingdom whose already precarious situations are worsened by drought. The land is dying, so is tradition. In the poet's words, "A people that no longer has legends is a people condemned to die of cold".
Yet there is still hope for Rabii, the most vulnerable and marginal of the three. Although he doesn't understand the hate between Kacem and Larbi, he does, thanks to his natural generosity, succeed in understanding their profound loneliness. This experience of friendship in a small village is no more than a last ray of hope; the fleeting image of a white horse galloping towards promising climes.

by Daoud Aoulad-Syad

Maroc - 1998 - 1 h 32 mn
- Réalisation/Director: Daoud Aoulad-Syad
- Scénario/Script: Ahmed Bouanani, Youssef Fadel
- Image/Director of Photography: Thierry Lebigre
- Décor/Set Design and Props: Naïma Bouanani
- Montage/Editing: Ahmed Bouanani, Nathalie Perrey
- Musique/Music: Lachhab
- Son/Sound: Gérome Ayasse

- Interprétation/Cast:
Hassan Esskalli (Kacem), Mohamed Bastaoui (Larbi), Abdellah Didane (Rabii), Nezra Rahile, Mohamed Miftah, Abdellatif Khamouli, Zohra Sadok, Zineb Smaiki -

35 mm colour
Feature Film

Original version in Arab subtitled in French

Production:
LES FILMS DU SUD (Daoud Aoulad-Syad)

With the participation of:
Ministère des Affaires étrangères (Direction de l'action audiovisuelle extérieure - Coopération et Francophonie), Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (Centre National de la Cinématographie) - FONDS SUD CINEMA (France). Centre Cinématographique du Morocco (C.C.M.) (Morocco), Hubert Bals Fund (Pays-Bas).

Contact in France:
ATRIA, Annabel Thomas
16 boulevard Jules Ferry
75011 Paris (France)
Tel. 33-(0)1 43 57 17 32
Fax: 33-(0)1 43 55 06 02