Halim (Saleh Bakri) and Mina (Lubna Azabal) own a fabric shop in the medina of Salé in Morocco and devote their life together to making traditional clothes…until the vagaries of life come. disturb their daily lives as meticulous craftsmen, completely devoted to their work.
Mina worries about the recurrence of a cancer that could well prove fatal. Halim lives in the secrecy of the hammams a homosexuality that must be hidden at all costs since the Penal Code punishes it with a prison sentence (up to three years).
And then comes Youssef (Ayoub Missioui), an apprentice who attaches himself with the same passion as his masters to the development of a particularly ornate blue caftan. So, of course, when we see this insolent young boy, with a nonchalant charm, we understand that Halim will fall in love with him and that the fragile balance of the couple will waver. All of Maryam Touzani’s talent lies in the fact that she sprinkles this long-awaited path with unpredictable notes.
Beyond the sensuality of the fabrics and the common work to transform a raw material into a refined garment, beyond the spontaneous attraction between two men whom everything brings together, Maryam Touzani has a love story to tell. And this is the most surprising of all: that of Mina and Halim.
“Mina is a strong woman,” says Maryam Touzani. But through this strength, she will realize that she will have contributed to making her husband even more vulnerable, out of love, by wanting to protect him. Like a mother who wants to brood too much on her child, and who realizes that one day she will no longer exist and that he will have to face the world, alone. Their relationship as a couple has changed over the years, Mina has also become a mother for Halim. They love each other differently, they have redefined their love. »
The filmmaker draws a complex landscape of feelings and sexuality, leaving their place to each of the protagonists without worrying about propriety or labels. And by magnifying the art of the maalem – the traditional Moroccan dressmaker – it is also an exhilarating vision of cinema that this Blue of the caftan wears.
