Bouchra (35), a queer Moroccan coyote living in NYC, is wrestling with writer’s block for her first film. As she begins a series of difficult yet long overdue phone calls with her mother, Aicha, in Casablanca, forgotten memories begin to resurface.  Balancing the precarity of working as an artist in New York, the rift in her identity between her two homes and an array of friendships and romantic interests, Bouchra’s emotional reckoning with her mother and herself becomes her path to expression.

With a lived-in granularity and unmistakable visual style, BOUCHRA, the debut feature from acclaimed visual artists Meriem Bennani and Orian Barki (best known together from their 2020 web series 2 LIZARDS), is a singular portrait effortlessly towing the line between documentary, visual art and resonant family drama. Deeply felt, surprisingly sexy and formally adventurous, Bennani and Barki’s distinctive debut forges new ground.