A tailor wrestles along with his sexuality in The Blue Caftan, a young Moroccan drama in Un Sure Regard from Maryam Touzani. Additionally a refined portrait of a wedding, it slowly unveils the problems of its characters with an empathetic, admiring gaze: these are two people who find themselves extremely principled and try to be considerate, even when one among them doesn’t all the time succeed.
Halim (Saleh Bakri) is a person of few phrases, and they’re spoken softly when he does so. He takes nice care along with his work, and patiently explains how time consuming it’s to handmake a top quality caftan to demanding prospects. His spouse Mina (Lubna Azabal) typically works with him, and in addition demonstrates diplomacy with their prospects. As soon as they’ve shut up store, she imitates them and makes her husband chortle: the playful humor of their relationship is without doubt one of the most charming parts of this movie. It’s additionally there when she watches her first soccer match with him in a cafe-bar, leaping to her ft and shouting “aim!,” even when it’s the opposite staff who’s scored.
The pair convulse into laughter about this over the course of the night, and it’s a uncommon sight to see a film couple bonding so convincingly over an in-joke. “It’s only a ball,” she shrugs as she expresses her mystification over the sights of the sport.
It’s a little bit of an emotional tug when the challenges on this couple’s marriage are revealed, from sickness to potential infidelity. Their hiring of a pretty younger tailor, Youssef (Ayoub Messioui) might end up to have a connection to each storylines.
Touzani eyes their predicaments with sensitivity and charm, though Mina’s character is probably remarkably saintly within the circumstances. There’s a short sense of the political local weather when they’re requested for ID checks within the medina. However this stays primarily a poignant story of a closeted man who has made his marriage work in opposition to the chances, and who could also be dealing with a brand new chapter.
