Farida Benlyazid

Directing

Farida Benlyazid

Known for

Directing

Credits

14 titles

Farida Benlyazid (born March 18, 1948, Tangier, Morocco) is a Moroccan scriptwriter, producer, production manager, novelist, and director. She began working in the field of cinema and cinematic production in the seventies. According to Sandra Gayle Carter, author of What Moroccan Cinema? : A Historical and Critical Study, Benlyazid continues to be one of the few Moroccan women in the field. From the start of her career up until 2003, she was the only female filmmaker in Morocco. Benlyazid's films, novel adaptations, documentaries and scripts have garnered much international recognition. She has become known for representing the struggles and obstacles faced by Moroccan women and incorporatin…

Known for

Behind the camera

In Search of My Wife's Husband poster
7.7

Lhadj Benmoussa, a rich jeweler, is married to several wives and appear to be a good manager of the three concubines, except when Houda, his third wife, who is young and gracious, is repudiated for the third time.

In Search of My Wife's Husband

1993

Five Films for a Hundred Years poster
NR

A collective film made to celebrate the centenary of cinema.

Five Films for a Hundred Years

1995

Sur la Terrasse / The Terrace poster
NR

Layla, a dreamy girl from Chaouen, is captivated by Sayda l'Hora, a 16th-century queen. One night on her family's terrace, she discovers outdoor cinema, sparking fantasies where she imagines herself a queen and her cousin Tariq a prince.

Sur la Terrasse / The Terrace

1995

Sur la Terrasse / The Terrace poster
NR

Layla, a dreamy girl from Chaouen, is captivated by Sayda l'Hora, a 16th-century queen. One night on her family's terrace, she discovers outdoor cinema, sparking fantasies where she imagines herself a queen and her cousin Tariq a prince.

Sur la Terrasse / The Terrace

1995

Frontiers poster
NR

Maité goes to the city of Laayoune where Dahmane is waiting for het to produce a documentary program about the Moroccan Sahara. the reality she discovers there does not match at all what she could have figured out....

Frontiers

2013

Frontiers poster
NR

Maité goes to the city of Laayoune where Dahmane is waiting for het to produce a documentary program about the Moroccan Sahara. the reality she discovers there does not match at all what she could have figured out....

Frontiers

2013

Badis poster
8.0

Story of two women in a small fishing village, a Spanish enclave on Moroccan territory. Touria is married to the school teacher, who suspects her of infidelity and confines her to the house. Touria befriends Moira and together they learn how to dance the flamenco.

Badis

1989

A Door to the Sky poster
7.8

In this Sufi tale, Nadia, a young Moroccan emigre returns from Paris to Fez to visit her dying father. At his funeral, she is overcome by the voice of mystic Kirana chanting the Koran. A powerful friendship develops between the two women as they decide to turn the father's palace into a shelter for Muslim women.

A Door to the Sky

1989

A Door to the Sky poster
7.8

In this Sufi tale, Nadia, a young Moroccan emigre returns from Paris to Fez to visit her dying father. At his funeral, she is overcome by the voice of mystic Kirana chanting the Koran. A powerful friendship develops between the two women as they decide to turn the father's palace into a shelter for Muslim women.

A Door to the Sky

1989

The Wretched Life of Juanita Narboni poster
8.0

The daughter of an Englishman and an Andalusian woman, Juanita rejects the historical changes taking place in Tangier.She lives alone in this "Paradise lost", surrounded by her sister Elena; Esther, her close friend who dedicates her entire life to an impossible love affair with a Moroccan; and Hamruch the housemaid, who disappears one day without saying a word. The Spanish Civil War, WWII with the arrival of refugees from Europe, and the Moroccan independence finally returns the city to its Arab origins. Juanita's tragedy lies in not realizing that her world is destined to disappear by the destructive and rejuvenating force of History.

The Wretched Life of Juanita Narboni

2005

Niya Taghlab poster
NR

"Mustapha" a taxi driver in the city of Tangier, during one of his trips the driver will accidentally meet a lost woman named "Toraya", who is foreign to the city and has no place to live in. Mustafa admires the woman and takes her to his house to stay with his wife, so problems start

Niya Taghlab

2000

Women's Wiles poster
6.5

As the son of the Sultan loves Aisha, the pampered daughter of the merchant, they both play tricks on each other to determine who is the most intelligent, a man or a woman.

Women's Wiles

1999

Casablanca, Casablanca poster
5.0

The story of Aicha, a young girl who disappears one day, and whose father lives a difficult life that gets even worse after her disappearance.

Casablanca, Casablanca

2002

Casanayda! poster
NR

Casanayda! follows young actors representative of the burgeoning Moroccan artistic and cultural scene in their successes as well as in their struggles.

Casanayda!

2007