I SEE THE STARS AT NOON

Saeed Taji Farouky
Great Britain, Morocco 2004 | 57 Min. | BetaSP, OmeU

In Jan­u­ary of 2004, in the north­ern Moroc­can city of Tang­iers, first time doc­u­men­tary film­mak­er Saeed Taji Farouky met a 26 year-old Moroc­can named Abdelfat­tah. He was a clan­des­tine, one of many Africans who try to cross the narrow Straits of Gibral­tar and ille­gal­ly enter Spain by stow­ing away on cargo ships or board­ing inflat­able rafts. By the end of their first meet­ing, Abdelfat­tah had agreed to let Saeed follow him to film every aspect of his jour­ney, includ­ing his deal­ings with people-smug­glers, his strug­gle to raise the 750 Euro fee, and his final days with his family before leav­ing. I SEE THE STARS AT NOON offers a unique and reveal­ing insight into Abdelfattah’s des­per­ate attempt to reach Europe. At times humor­ous and dis­turb­ing, it inti­mate­ly exam­ines the cir­cum­stances that lead him to risk every­thing for an utter­ly uncer­tain future: his ambi­tions for a new life, his expec­ta­tions of what Europe can offer him, and his frus­tra­tion at the fail­ures of his own Moroc­co. But I SEE THE STARS AT NOON is not only a por­trait of a hope­ful immi­grant; it is also an explo­ration of the nature of doc­u­men­tary film­mak­ing and objec­tiv­i­ty. The rela­tion­ship between film­mak­er and sub­ject is thrown into ques­tion when Abdelfat­tah asks why his life is being filmed for the ben­e­fit of Euro­pean audi­ences, and what he deserves in return.