Yassine Marco Marroccu
ALKEBULAN
An odyssey to rescue a sacred amulet from a ship wrecked at the coastline of the Atlantic Sahara during the turbulent wake of African independence.
SYNOPSIS
Morocco, spring 1961. The merchant ship Talassim and its crew disappeared from the map on the Atlantic coast of the Sahara in a remote and wild region under the control of local tribes and the Moroccan army. Edoardo (43) has been living in retirement in Casablanca since he left fascist Italy, his homeland. He is the one who will be sent searching for the shipwreck. He lost his wife not long ago, and the dubious mission looks like a perfect escape from depression. With his good friend, Aziz, they embark on the hazardous mission of crossing the Sahara in a transformed Renault 4. Their destination is the small southern port town of Cape Juby, a former Spanish military base. Parallel to their odyssey, a caravan with a sacred mission travels from the depths of the Sahara to the same place. They are guided by the vision of their leader, Amastan, a Tuareg shaman. They come close to solving the mystery: the cargo hides ancient secrets. However, a high price must be paid for this knowledge.
DIRECTOR
Yassine Marco Marroccu
PRODUCER
Andrea Taschler
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Mirage Film
COUNTRIES
Morocco, Hungary, Qatar
CO-PRODUCTION COMPANY
Eclipse Films
GENRE
Fiction
Yassine Marco Marroccu
YASSINE MARCO MARROCCU graduated from the audiovisual arts at the University of Udine in 2003. He has a wide knowledge of international productions working in Morocco and Italy has been a producer and director since the 2000s. As the owner of a Casablanca-based Eclipse Production, he helped the development of several projects and directed advertisements, short films, and participated in various humanitarian projects in the North-African region and refugee camps in South-Eastern Europe (Greece, Macedonia, Serbia). He directed his first short film in 2001, “Gnawas” and was invited to many international film festivals like Clermont-Ferrand. For his short film “Entropya”, he received the grand prize at the Festival du Cinéma Maghrébin Alger 2013, among other prizes. He completed his first feature film “Catharsys or The Afina Tales of the Lost World” in 2018, a co-production of Morocco, Italy and Serbia, which had the world premiere at Tallinn Black Nights, and became the film of the year in its origin, Morocco.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Although traditionally unstable, the situation in Southern Morocco has been problematic since the 1960s. And yet no artistic-cultural enterprise seems to want to remedy the Sahraoui quagmire. The efforts of the various factions involved in this immense quicksand are mainly propagandist when they are not simply amorphous spectators, totally amnesic regarding the status report. Today, the topographical description of this part of the world is unique, a terrae dissidentiae, or terrae incognitae, a situation of “no status” so much the status quo is vivid. No map presents this region in its certainty; the doubt still hangs even at the level of the world map, regarding this murky area. I have been attracted and attached to the Sahara Desert since my early years. I passed through many journeys across this marvellous wasteland, through the sandy desert, and the rocky one. I experienced enough adventures to consider it a central element in developing my consciousness and spiritual elevation.
Andrea Taschler
ANDREA TASCHLER is a graduate of the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, and has been working in the film industry since 2000. With two decades of experience, she has worked on multiple award-winning and internationally acclaimed projects, collaborating with Hungary’s new generation of filmmakers. During years of practising her skills as a freelance line producer on various international productions, she gained a broad industry expertise. In 2010, she founded Mirage Film, a Budapest-based production company, now operating on the name Andromeda Films which has become a milestone for innovative and bold cinematic storytelling. Andrea is a member of the European Film Academy and a graduate of EAVE Producers Workshop. Her selection for Producers on the Move 2013 also established her as a notable figure in the European film production scene. Under Andrea's vision, Mirage Film specializes in producing high-quality narrative fiction and documentary projects. The company positions itself as a supportive and inspiring environment for a collaborative creative workshop than a traditional production house. With a main focus on Hungarian filmmakers, Mirage Film works a lot with emerging talents beyond the borders, and constantly looking for suitable content for both domestic and international audiences. The goal is to support filmmakers who possess original and distinctive or even radical cinematic vision and to produce cutting-edge, valiant, and innovative projects, which have the power to strengthen the diversity of cinema. Andrea’s long-standing collaboration with acclaimed director Szabolcs Hajdu began with the critically acclaimed White Palms, a standout in East-European cinema of the 2000s. Their next project was Bibliothèque Pascal, premiered in competition at the Berlin in 2010. In 2014, Mirage Film’s first feature project, Mirage, a contemporary western, had its world premiere at the Toronto. Another significant achievement came with the debut film of Slovak-Hungariandirector Kristóf György. Developed by Mirage Film, the film was selected for Un Certain Regard at the 2017 Cannes.
Production company profile
THIS Budapest-based MIRAGE FILM is dedicated primarily to author cinema. The company stands out among the few production companies in Hungary, which maintains a consistent commitment to international partnerships. Since its start, the company has supported new authors and worked globally to promote recognition for films by emerging talents. Since 2019, Mirage Film has been developing projects also in the North-African region.
Where are we at?
TOTAL ESTIMATED BUDGET
1.300.000 €
NEEDED FOR COMPLETION
150.000 €
Looking for at CineLink?
financial and/or in-kind contributions to cover the expenses of the final edit, the VFX works and the sound post-production, an international sales company to elaborate on the distribution and marketing plan and festival strategy for our film.