The jury of the Sydney Film Festival has named The Mother of All Lies the best picture of the festival. The docu-drama, which was directed by Asmae El Moudir, tells the story behind the Bread Riots of Morocco in 1981, where many young Moroccan activists were killed while protesting the rising prices of common goods such as flour and butter due to the Western Sahara War. The film also weaves in El Moudir’s journey of discovering stories from her childhood.
“Juxtaposing evidence from barely existent public materials with private family memory, this film reconstructs the history of the state, the family and the individual, in three distinct levels,” the jury said of the film, which uses a type of stop-motion animation with doll figurines to tell its story.
The Mother of All Lies recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard, where it won the section’s award for best director.
Sydney Film Festival CEO Frances Wallace told Variety that the 2023 festival comprised 400 film screenings, special events and talks, and that 242 films from across the globe were shown.Although the festival only ran for two weeks, June 7-18, many films that were shown will now take to the road and be shown at several locations across Australia, including Newcastle and Sawtell.
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