Franco-Moroccan Filmmaker’s Debut Road Trip Movie Captures Nostalgia and Family Tensions

Nabil Aitakkaouali and Olivier Dacourt called upon comedian Redouane Bougheraba, and actresses Caroline Anglade and Farida Ouchani to play roles in "On the Road of Dad". This feature film "tells the journey of a family like any other, whether it be in their experiences, crossing France and Spain every summer aboard an old Renault 21 to reach Morocco and return to the Bled. On this road of the past, the cramped cabin, the memories and resentments resurfacing, and the landscapes revealing all their beauty". In total, 2,400 km to travel to Morocco, 3 days of driving at a rate of about 30 hours of driving..., reports Le Parisien.

"How many times have I made this trip, as a child, a teenager and an adult, with the car and the roof rack!", exclaims Nabil Aitakkaouali. "When we arrived at my grandparents’, my parents would tell them everything that had happened to us." Today, this 49-year-old self-taught filmmaker has realized his dream of making this journey into a family road movie. On Monday, the director held a preview in Brive. "It’s a lot of emotion to present my first film here, in my city. I’ve always been proud of my origins. Wherever I go, I say I’m from Brive-la-Gaillarde. ’Oh yes, rugby,’ they reply to me."

Aitakkaouali did not just stay behind the camera. He also made a small Hitchcock-style appearance in his film. "I also slipped in some of my personal trauma. The main character blames his parents for leaving him in the Bled. To be in the emotion, the sincerity, to make it sound true, it was necessary to draw on real life experiences." This first film had a positive impact on him. "It resolved a lot of things in me, it soothed me and reinforced my idea to continue. This is just the beginning," added the director.