Casablanca Beats

Casablanca Beats is a vibrant mix of musical drama and inspirational story, about a group of teens at a cultural centre learning to express themselves through hip-hop. The cultural center in Casablanca, called Les Etoiles de Sidi Moumen, is a real place, co-founded by the film's director Nabil Abouch. This fact gives the film a highly documentarian, lively feel. We are thrown into the heated classroom together with the talented youngsters. Through rap, social and personal issues in their lives become suddenly visible.

The rap music and the charismatic cast make Casablanca Beats a bubbling, engaging experience. Anas, the students' mentor, is teaching them with a hard hand, but the reward is life-changing for the aspiring rappers. The film is the first Moroccan film selected for the main competition at Cannes Film Festival since 1962.