Queer people who struggle with family acceptance often resort to misrepresenting their daily existence and rely instead on white lies, omissions, and ellipses. In Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani’s debut feature, the process of spinning fiction out of real life can be at once painful and generative. Bouchra, the magnetic protagonist, is a lesbian Moroccan film-maker based in New York, and understands this paradox all too well. Though she has already come out to her mother Aïcha, she still has to hide her romantic partners, an experience that she pours into her film-making. Art and reality collapse into one, as remembered conversations shapeshift into film dialogue, and memories flow on to storyboards.
Even for an animated feature, such metafictional structures are not entirely usual. What sets the film apart, however, is the ingenious choice to render all of the characters as anthropomorphic animals. Voiced by Bennani, Bouchra presents as a stylish coyote decked out in Prada. This unique approach liberates the film from the ethnographic, identitarian trappings sometimes found in queer storytelling. At the same time, the visuals are deeply rooted in cultural specificity: developed from a photorealistic mix of live-action footage and 3D imaging, the cityscapes of New York and Casablanca are exquisitely true to life while streaked with nostalgia.
Bouchra’s home in Casablanca also glows with vivid colours. Here, old songs sung by her aunties mingle with energetic raps that thrum through radios and nightclubs. Despite grappling with intergenerational tension, the film also makes space for the erotic thrill of sexual intimacy, passionate encounters that lighten the weight of emotional turmoil. Far from reiterating tired binaries – tradition versus modernity, elders versus youngsters – the film embraces the beauty of contradictions with open arms. Even when the possibility of reconciliation appears out of reach, it is the effort to communicate – whether through words or art – that brings peace.
• Bouchra is at the ICA, London, from 20 March.
