by Wanda Waterman

The Voice, Volume 22 Issue 41 2014-10-17

Film: Horses of God

Director: Nabil Ayouch

Writer: Jamal Belmahi, based on the book by Mahi Binebine

“I was very interested in violence itself because I believe violence has a source. It has a reason why; it doesn’t come from the sky. I was interested in the genesis of violence.”
– Nabil Ayouch

“The name that can be named is not the eternal name.”
– The Tao Te Ching

On the 16th of May, 2003, 12 suicide bombers set off explosions in five different locations in Casablanca, Morocco—locations chosen for the number of Jews and Christians expected to be present—killing forty-five people. Horses of God is the imagined backstory of this shocking event.

Most North Americans know little about the city of Casablanca other than its having been the setting of the classic Hollywood film set there and named after it. But let’s imagine that just as Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart are reuniting over the dulcet tones of Dooley Wilson singing “As Time Goes By,” a group of dour young men stroll into the bar and blow up the joint. You may have some idea of the shock caused by the terrorist act of May 16, 2003.

Backtrack. Brothers Yachine and Hamid are a couple of street urchins . . . (Read the rest here.)