Behind The Palm Trees

A romance, carried by the sweet promise of new beginnings, unfolds between Mehdi (Driss Ramdi), who works with his father renovating houses, and Selma (Nadia Kounda), a young woman working in a bakery. But when Marie (Sara Giraudeau), the French daughter of a family that has moved to Marrakesh, enters the picture, things seem destined to end in tragedy. A poignant portrait of a love triangle, thoroughly entangled with the afterlives of colonialism, the fractures of masculinity, and the harsh realities of contemporary Moroccan society strained under the weight of social and economic injustice.

The second feature film by Moroccan filmmaker Meryem Benm’Barek, following her highly acclaimed Sofia (2018), premiered at the Marrakech International Film Festival in 2026. (IA)

Followed by a talk with the filmmaker

In cooperation with the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO)