Nabil Ayouch’s HORSES OF GOD, Morocco’s Submission for the 2014 Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, will be released in the U.S. by Kino Lorber, with a planned release in May, 2014. “HORSES OF GOD” had its World Premiere in’ Un Certain Regard at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and went on to win multiple awards including Best Director at the Seattle International Film Festival. The film, inspired by the terrorist attacks of May 16th, 2003 in Casablanca, follows two young men living in the slum of Sidi Moumen in Casablanca, caught up in Islamic fundamentalism and become martyrs.
In HORSES OF GOD, 10-year-old Yachine lives with his family in the Sidi Moumen slum in Casablanca. His mother leads the family as best as she can. His father suffers from depression, one of his brothers is in the army, another is almost autistic and the third, Hamid (13), is the neighbourhood boss and Yachine’s protector.
When Hamid is sent to jail, Yachine takes job after job, however hopeless, to try and lift himself up from the violence, misery and drugs that surround him. Released from prison, now an Islamic fundamentalist, Hamid persuades Yachine and his friends to join their “brothers”.
The Imam – their spiritual leader – starts to direct their arduous physical and mental preparation. One day, he tells them they have been chosen to become martyrs.
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