Achoura
The storyline is quite familiar. A young boy mysteriously disappears while he is out playing with three of his friends. Twenty-five years later he reappears, and the gang of four team up to settle the case with the horrific monster from their childhood they have tried to forget all these years: a hungry, child-eating creature named Boughatate, that is once again loose in the streets of Casablanca.
Achoura clearly gets its inspiration from classical horror films of the eighties and nineties, and the most prominent source is probably Stephen King’s IT. A well-known formula, however, director Talal Selhami manages to breathe fresh air into old genre tropes by incorporating folklore and urban legends from Morocco. The final result is a delightfully dark horror film.
French-Moroccan Talal Selhami (b. 1982) has previously directed the short film Sinistra (2006), which was shown at Sitges International Fantasy Film Festival, and the feature film Mirages (2010) produced by Nabil Ayouch, which was screened at Marrakech Film Festival. Achoura is his second feature film and is inspired by Moroccan mythology.
Original title Achoura
Year 2018
Director Talal Selhami
Screenplay Jawad Lahlou, Talal Selhami
Cinematography Mathieu De Montgrand
Producer Lamia Chraibi
Cast Sofiia Manousha, Younes Bouab, Omar Lotfi, Iván González
Production Company Moon & Deal Films
Runtime 1h 30m
Links IMDb