Paris-based, Casablanca-born director Laila Marrakchi – whose first feature “Marock” screened in Cannes in 2005 – is back in Un Certain Regard with female-driven migrant drama “Strawberries” about a group of Moroccan seasonal laborers hired to pick strawberries in Spain who decide to stand up to their abusive employers.
After portraying Morocco’s upper classes in “Marock” and “Rock the Casbah” (2013) – and then veering into TV by directing episodes of Damien Chazelle’s “The Eddy” for Netflix and of several French TV series including “The Bureau” – Marrakchi now turns her eye to the true story of young women who leave Morocco for a strawberry farm in Southern Spain in hopes of providing a better life for their families, only to contend with harassment and inhumane living conditions.
Marrakchi speaks to Variety about transitioning from depicting Morocco’s moneyed milieu to delving into the lives of lower class Moroccan women whose steely pursuit of a better life she found inspiring.
How did ‘Strawberries’ originate?
A journalist who is a very close friend of mine told me about this woman, [named Hasna in the film], who left her family to go to Spain to work on a strawberry farm and once she was there decided to fight against the exploitation that was taking place. My friend was assigned to do an article about this for The New York Times. So I went with her to Andalusia, to Huelva, precisely. And I really discovered another world, so I decided to do some research and meet her and some pickers. I was really moved by this woman. That’s why I decided to do this film.
