Hadda

Hadda

1984. Morocco/France. Directed and cowritten by Mohamed Aboulouakar. With Zohra Oubaha, Mohamed Mechaal, Touria. After Hadda, a young woman in a poor, arid village in the Moroccan countryside, is raped by Hamid, a young landowner who has returned to the village to reclaim his inheritance, she is forced to leave and fend for herself in the desert. While the victimization of women was a prevalent theme in Moroccan cinema at the time, director (and painter) Aboulouakar’s style was so singular—his visual treatment so stunning and emotionally charged, with sparse dialogue laced with poetry—that Hadda stands apart as a cinematic landmark. In Arabic; English subtitles. 107 min.