June 9: BURNING CASABLANCA (2021) by Ismaël El Iraki

5.00pm | Sunday, June 9, 2024. | Alliance Française Lagos, 9 Osborne Road, Ikoyi | Free Entry

June at Screen Out Loud usually means music or politics! This month, we look forward to screening Ismaël El Iraki’s BURNING CASABLANCA (also titled ‘Zanka Contact’), a drama about usually unseen, nocturnal characters surviving on their own terms in the Moroccan capital’s underbelly.
The story is inspired by the director’s trauma and recovery after witnessing the 2015 terrorist attack at Bataclan in Paris.

What could possibly happen when a spirited sex worker crashes into a traumatised rockstar? Beyond, sex, drugs and rock & roll, their burning love affair soon sets off its own fireworks – not unexpected when you add a possessive pimp and a corrupt police officer in the mix. BURNING CASABLANCA can also be described as a contemporary (punk) western, with elements of A Thousand and One Nights.
Screening starts at 5pm prompt (doors open at 4.30pm) on Sunday, June 9 at Alliance Française Lagos/Mike Adenuga Centre. Entry is free.

ABOUT THE FILM
In hellish Casablanca, the burning love story between has-been rocker Larsen and the streetwise amazon Rajae sets ablaze a crazy Moroccan underworld in this story of passion, trauma and rock n’ roll. Fallen rock star, Larsen Snake returns to his native Casablanca where he meets Rajae, a street girl with a golden voice. They roam the city nights and fall madly in love. But their passion is quickly overtaken by their past, and the wild couple takes the road to the desert to escape their demons.