Mocros (2011)

Directed by: Roy Women | 75 minutes | documentary

It is a well-known phenomenon that documentary makers sometimes become so involved with their subject that they continue to follow these people. British Phil Grabsky, for example, followed the Afghan boy Mir for years, which resulted in two documentaries: ‘The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan’ (2004) and ‘The Boy Mir’ (2011). There are also examples in the Netherlands: Marijke Jongbloed, for example, who already started filming young ballet dancers in the 1980s. This engagement resulted in a beautiful triptych, which Jongbloed concluded in 2011 with ‘Dance for life’. Roy Dames is also so interested in the people he films that he dedicates not one but two documentaries to them. Rightly so. The Rotterdam youth in his documentary ‘Ik ben Mohammed’ (2005), who may well serve as a model for an entire generation of Moroccans in the Netherlands, deserved more screen time than they get in that short documentary, nominated for a Golden Calf. If only to create more awareness for the problems, self-inflicted or not, with which these Moroccan teenagers are confronted.

Four bullets: two for his older brother and two for his brother-in-law. Life in the Netherlands has not been easy for Tomaz. After the murder of his brother, which he practically witnessed, things went very wrong for Tomaz. ‘Mocros’ shows a raw and unadorned image of this derailed young man. Although Roy Dames does not judge, but only has his camera registered, there will be few viewers who will not have an opinion about Tomaz when he grins at the spicy statements of the ex-prisoner: “At school I played pranks. Now a level higher, huh.”

Soufian is also filmed honestly, close to the skin. He is a boy who wants to, but who finds it difficult to find his way. After completing an electrical engineering course, he and his best friend Hamid are studying hairdressing (as is also shown in ‘I am Mohammed’), but in ‘Mocros’ we see that he has already taken a different tack. He wants to become a manager and enrolls in a training course at the ROC Zadkine, but can hardly put into words what his motivation is during the intake interview. The bottom line is that he wants to make money, get rich quick. But if finding a side job already causes so many problems for these young people (all large supermarkets reject them, they get zero at employment agencies), how should they do that if they want to make a career? Hamid lands a job at a pet store specializing in fish that would make any youngster happy, but actually acts like he needs to clean toilets. “If I don’t like the people, can I stop?” he later responds in front of the camera. Nourdinne admits in an interview with an employment agency that the work he got through them was too difficult to reach by public transport, so he decided not to show up. “So I thought, you know, never mind.”

Getting rich, that wish is actually what most of the Moroccan youths filmed have in common. Many of them believe that a regular job will not give them a fat bank account fast enough. That’s why they choose the side of crime. It is frustrating to see that a youth worker has to fight against a wall of incomprehension when he tries to convince a 17-year-old Moroccan that after the current study a follow-up study is a real option.

There is a lot of overlap between ‘I am Mohammed’ and ‘Mocros’, but for those who haven’t seen the first documentary or have already sunk a bit, ‘Mocros’ is worth watching. The film-maker follows the boys as far as Morocco, where they visit family. And that makes it clear that they also feel like a fish out of water there. They are just as much a tourist there as the average Dutch person who books ’12 days of fairytale Morocco’. Dames offers no solutions, but only registers. And that is actually the only correct approach. Generations will probably think about how this problem should be solved. It’s nice to see that there is always hope. Also for guys like Tomaz.