The Damned Don't Cry

Fatima-Zahra’s dreams of a glamorous life have fallen victim to a brutal reality and she has turned to sex work to provide for herself and her teenage son Selim. Selim becomes furious when he discovers that his mother has lied about his origin, but carries secrets of his own after meeting the wealthy Frenchman Sébastien.

The Damned Don't Cry is an intimate and unsentimental story of two people struggling to find their place in the world. Director Fyzal Boulifa uses this foundation to explore an impressive array of themes. The relationship between Selim and Sébastien is an excellent example of this, with the latter simultaneously inhabiting the roles of employer, lover, sexual client, and father figure. This is a thought-provoking film in the truest sense of the word, but Boulifa never lets the themes overshadow his tender and tragic portrayal of his main characters, which seems clearly inspired by the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder.