Filmmaker’s Poignant Journey: Renault 12 Road Trip Explores Grief and Heritage Between France and Morocco

Mourning, identity and heritage... an explosive cocktail that fills the eyes of cinema lovers. Yamna, Mohamed El Khatib’s mother, died of cancer in February 2012. Using a camera installed in the hospital room, the playwright filmed the interviews and exchanges he had with her for weeks, reports ARTE. His father, his sisters and he organize the repatriation of the deceased’s body by plane from Orléans to Tangier.

Uncles, aunts and cousins participate in the funeral. The director immortalizes these moments. After making other documentary materials, he offers a cinematic sequel to cinema lovers. The strange phone message from a maternal uncle, who invites him to come to the Rif "with a Renault 12" to inherit an agricultural plot, inspires him. He is the only son of the deceased. He embarks on an initiatory journey, which combines documentary and fiction, reverie and reality. Pure creativity.