Khadija Alami’s K Films Boards Tala Hadid’s ‘Bardi,’ About Morocco’s Itinerant Horsemen (EXCLUSIVE)
Powerhouse indie producer Khadija Alami’s K Films has boarded “Bardi,” Tala Hadid’s follow-up to the 2017 Berlin-selected documentary “House in the Fields.” The new feature, currently being edited, is participating in this year’s Atlas Workshops at the Marrakech Film Festival.
“I’m thrilled to come on board ‘Bardi,'” Alami told Variety. “Tala is a great filmmaker and artist, and the film promises to be very special.”
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“Khadija truly supports Moroccan filmmakers, and often young ones who are just starting out,” said Hadid. “She is very professional and incredibly intelligent and has been a powerhouse for our industry.”
This second part of a projected trilogy follows a traveling brotherhood of horsemen across Morocco as they journey to different Saints Week celebrations to compete and show off their incredible equestrian skills.
“It’s very medieval,” the director explains. “It’s a real sport with an ancient link to Mediterranean culture. It’s rough and crazy with all kinds of rules, but it’s more than just a sport because it’s tied into these Saints Week traditions. When you start to excavate the layers, there are these traditions that transcend geography and space, and I found that really interesting.”
Hadid filmed the riders over three years, documenting the traditions and practices that dictate much of their lives and, specifically, their horseback riding.
“It’s an intimate film; it’s immersive. You’re in their lives, and it takes time for them to let you in,” Hadid explains. “But once you get that intimate access, a strange kind of fiction starts to happen, a metamorphosis between fiction and documentary. I think that’s the power of any project done in a group, but it definitely applies to filmmaking. The reality of the project transcends gender, race and any initial misgivings.”
K Films joins fellow production companies Kairoi Films, Danny Glover and Joselyn Barnes’ Louverture Films and France’s Cine Sud, headed by Thierry Lenouvel. Producers include Hadid and Barnes, Abdelmonime El Jarib, Lenouvel, and now, Alami.
“Louverture Films has supported Tala Hadid’s new hybrid documentary ‘Bardi’ from its inception, as a natural progression from our participation in her envisioned trilogy that began with ‘House in the Fields,'” Barnes tells Variety. “The first film dealt with women and girls in the High Atlas, two sisters specifically. This new second film is a story of fraternal bonds, community, belief, and care, told through the world of horses and men.
“Tala’s remarkable visual eye and feel for rhythm is complemented here by the sheer kinetic aspect of the film,” Barnes added.
“Transformation is central to her vision and what drew us to the project. The embrace of the quotidian boys who are growing into adulthood, and the attendant contemporary questions of what makes men – is interwoven with the transformation they undergo participating in performances astride horses that transcend the quotidian and elevate them into a mythic pantheon that feels eternal.”
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