L'ENFANT ENDORMI (THE SLEEPING CHILD)
Morocco, 2004, 97 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Yasmine Kassari.
The Sleeping Child is a film from Morocco, a female director with an emphasis on female issues, especially the plight of semi-illiterate women whose husbands leave them in order to go to Europe for better wages – and then do not come back.
The director won the best director award at the Mar del Plata festival and won the grand prize at the Tangiers film festival.
It is significant that a film like this, with such issues, is made by a female director, critical of life in her own country – but made with confidence and hope.
1.North-eastern Morocco? A Moroccan story, Moroccan customs and traditions? Into the 21st century? Issues of men and migration? Women and their remaining? The place of women, family and children?
2.The importance of the landscapes, the mountains, the many long shots, the terrain? The opening ceremony, life in the mountains, in the huts, the village, the school? The video machine?
3.The title, issues of marriage, pregnancy, rituals for Healing, the foetus being lulled to sleep while the husband was away, the rituals for awaking the foetus? Zeinab and her final decision?
4.The opening, the ceremony, Zeinab as the bride, Hamila and her helping her, the mother, the arrival of the Healer? The men, waiting, dancing, clashes? Migrating the next morning? Hamila and her discussion with Ahmed? Zeinab and her husband, the ritual of the wedding night? The women expected to wait and obey?
5.The picture of Hamila, her relationship with her daughter, the baby, work in the mountains, her being illiterate, but intelligent, her discussions with Ahmed, his going, the video and his not speaking on it, she and Zeinab getting the video, the camera, the message, her being hurt? Flirting? Stopping, her being beaten? The situation being too much – and the possibility of her leaving?
6.Zeinab, as the bride, the Healer and the rituals, the bathing? Her pregnancy, the ritual for getting the child to sleep, going to the city, the Healer, the package, the document with the ink? Zeinab’s life in the village, at home, with her mother, mother-in-law? The video? The bonds with Hamila? Finally taking the photo, sending it to her husband – and his ordering her not to go into the town? Her decision not to waken the sleeping child? The letter with the ink going down the river?
7.The mother-in-law, blind, strong, being waited on, the discussions, her memories, agreeing to the photo?
8.The women’s mother, her hard life, work, the description of their birth? The other women?
9.The sketch of the men, the situation, the wedding, going underground, to Spain, the hard life, sending the video, their absence, out of work, injuries, not sending money? Wanting their women to wait and obey?
10.Hamila’s daughter, lively, sad at her father going? The details of life at home? School? The school sequence, the teacher asking them about democracy, their reply that democracy was about bread? The teacher and the abstract class? The blind mother coming to ask for the children to do the rituals? To eat the bread while it was hot?
11.The Healer, his coming with the initial ritual, the package with the letter and the ink?
12.The ending, the pathos with Zeinab, Hamila absent, her not wanting the child?
13.A focus on women and their rights in Morocco, Islamic society in Morocco?
14.The reality of migration, work, men, the consequences for Moroccan society?
