The Blue Caftan review – tender Moroccan love story between a gay tailor and his wife – The Guardian

This tender and unhappy drama ought to include the other of a content material warning: a reassuring observe at first to clarify that no bodily hurt or public humiliation will come to the homosexual males whose story we’re about to look at. It’s set in Morocco the place homosexuality is a prison offence, and for the primary half an hour I assumed the emotional brace place, satisfied it will finish in arrest or worse for its lead character. However as an alternative, the movie’s director Maryam Touzani had put collectively a delicate, advanced movie: a love story between a homosexual man and his spouse.
Ridiculously handsome Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri’s good-looking face is hidden away behind a caterpillar-like moustache to play Halim, a grasp tailor who makes hand-embroidered girls’s caftans. Like Daniel Day-Lewis’s couturier in Phantom Thread, Halim is an obsessive artist, refusing to make use of a stitching machine and infuriating his wealthy prospects by preserving them ready for his masterpieces. His elegant spouse Mina (Lubna Azabal) runs entrance of store.
The couple have been married for 25 years; they don’t have youngsters. Halim is homosexual and cruises on the hammam. His spouse Mina is aware of about his sexuality, and at first, the couple’s marriage appears well mannered, nearly like a efficiency of a cheerful couple. However because the film progresses their intimacy is revealed in wealthy, novelistic scenes of atypical life. In a special nation, at one other time, they might not select to be collectively, however right here and now, they’re the nice love of one another’s lives.
A love triangle (of types) begins when Mina turns into unwell and Halim hires an apprentice, Youssef (Ayoub Missioui). However even this storyline develops in methods which are surprising. At occasions I puzzled if the movie is a bit too tasteful and tactful concerning the ache that Halim and Mina need to suppress, however nonetheless it’s a vastly compassionate and emotionally satisfying film.
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