Rough Hands
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Mohamed Asli
Mohamed Bastaoui
Houda Rihani
Abdessamad Miftahakhair
Amina Rachid
Raimondo Aiello
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Mustapha is barber in Casablanca whose clients include retired high-ranking government officials, former cabinet ministers and Moroccan power brokers. He also maintains an underground business facilitating paperwork, utilizing these retired players as a way to navigate the bureaucracy. While his side business thrives, Mustapha hides the fact he is actually illiterate and has hired Said to assist him with the work. However, he has no idea that Said is being paid to monitor his underground dealings. Mustapha's next door neighbor, Zakia, is a thirty-year-old schoolteacher whose fiancé, Driss, has immigrated to Spain. Zakia wants to join Driss but securing a visa seems near impossible. She discovers that it will soon be berry-picking season in Spain and a company is hiring Moroccan women to do the harvesting, granting them temporary work visas. The women are to be married with children and to have rough hands. She asks Mustapha to forge her papers and uses a special cream to make her hands coarse. The papers get processed, but Zakia's hands fail the test. Soon after, Driss and she break up and she is forced to stay in Casablanca. But it appears that another destiny is waiting for Zakia.
