Meskina (2021)

Directed by: Daria Bukvic | 94 minutes | comedy | Actors: Maryam Hassouni, Soundos El Ahmadi, Jouman Fattal, Nasrdin Dchar, Oscar Aerts, Vincent Banic, Sisi Bolatini, Bilal Wahib, Olaf Ait Tami, Rachida Iaallala, Najib Amhali

There is plenty of talent among Dutch people of Moroccan descent, but why is the image that appears of them in television series and feature films so limited? That’s what stand-up comedian Soundos El Ahmadi wondered aloud. That is why she decided to come up with a funny story about a Moroccan-Dutch woman who is trying to find her way in life. According to El Ahmadi, it is not about ‘a woman who needs to be rescued by a white man, or a woman who is a jihadist and is raped’, but about a woman like you and me who tries to live her life in all kinds of ways. comic situations, but ‘coincidentally’ comes from a Moroccan family. In her quest, she struggles with her own expectations and those of those around her in the areas of love, family, identity and career. So universal themes, but with a Moroccan sauce. “I am convinced that a film like this has never been made in the Netherlands,” said Soundos. “I dreamed as a girl to be in such a movie, but there weren’t any. So I take matters into my own hands.”

The main character in ‘Meskina’ (2021) is Leyla (Emmy winner Maryam Hassouni), a dreamy woman of just thirty who aspires to a career as a writer of children’s books. When we meet her, she tells stories to the children during a cousin’s wedding. She also does that a bit to avoid the scornful looks of other family members. They think she is a ‘meskina’, a sad case. A woman her age should have had husband and children long ago, but Leyla is still searching. When her old friend Abdelkarim (Olaf Ait Tami), now a rich and famous music producer, shows up and hangs out with her, Leyla seems to be finally able to shake off her spinster image. They are very happy and even tie the knot. But then Leyla’s world collapses like a house of cards when she discovers that Abdelkarim can’t keep his hands off his newest singer.

After wallowing in self-pity for a while, Leyla decides to pick up her life again. Her mother (Rachida Iaallala) and older sister Amina (Soundos El Ahmadi) decide to lend fate a helping hand and independently arrange a blind date for Leyla. Mother’s choice is Amin (Nasrdin Dchar), a neat, hard-working boy from a family of friends, while Amina posts Leyla’s photo on Tinder. One of the men who responds is the handsome Fabian (Vincent Banic). Since Leyla likes both men, she decides to date only two men at a time, which naturally gets her into quite a bit of trouble.

‘Meskina’, directed by Bosnian-Dutch Daria Bukvic, is teeming with power women. Women who don’t care about what is traditionally expected of them. Although Amina is properly married and has children, her husband Klaas (Oscar Aerts in a sympathetic role) is not a Muslim and Amina also brings in the money at home since she has a good job as a urologist. And then Leyla has a cousin, Malika (Jouman Fattal), who runs a successful business empire. And Leyla herself is also independent enough to determine her own course, although she initially has doubts about whether she can express this. Third – or in some cases even fourth – generation Dutch Moroccan women can be expected to have been able to throw off the yoke of traditions and entrenched gender roles. But apparently there was still a lot to be done in the film world. ‘Meskina’ also plays successfully with prejudices. Thus the film begins with two nervous young boys who park their car in a shadowy parking lot and take something indefinable from the trunk. Of course you don’t immediately think that they are nervous about a lavish Moroccan wedding in which all aunts will pinch their cheeks!

El Ahmadi was not only involved in the screenplay and production, but also in the casting. A selection of Moroccan-Dutch talent passes by, with Dchar and Hassouni also including comedian Najib Amhali in a charming role as a greengrocer with a crush on Leyla’s widowed mother. Bilal Wahib also plays a role, as the eccentric assistant of the corporate Malika. Wahib was discredited earlier in 2021 over a live stream that got out of hand, in which he urged an underage boy to show his genitals. The film had already been shot before that time. Hopefully for him it stays with this one incident, because it would be a waste of his acting talent if he were to risk his career with such missteps.

Romantic comedies, especially the Dutch ones, usually follow a fixed pattern and ‘Meskina’ also fits into that pattern. We don’t go very deep in this film either (maybe it doesn’t fit the genre either) and here too we see a collage of Tinderdates ‘from hell’, we work towards speech that will put everything in its place and is there’s even a scene in the departure lounge of an airport. Nevertheless, ‘Meskina’ feels fresher than most other romkoms. Of course because of the Moroccan sauce that is over it, but also because at certain times different choices are made than you would expect. In that respect, this generation of Moroccan-Dutch people has confidently thrown off the reins of tradition. The fact that the film is also very witty at times is a bonus!