French Film Festival: Amal

‘Memento mori’ translates as ‘remember to die’. It is the first image in Amal tattooed on the back of a young woman who is crying in the shower. She has injuries on her shoulder. This is the back of Mounia, a teenager bullied and mistreated by some fellow students because she is a lesbian. The calming presence in the ruthless jungle that is high school is Amal, an unconventional French teacher.

Jawad Rhalib, known for socially engaged documentaries such as The Pink Revolution and Au temps où les arabes dansaient presents a new fictional film eight years after his previous one with Amal. Amal, portrayed by the formidable Lubna Azabal, positions herself as a strong advocate for free speech, but this threatens to profoundly disrupt both the lives of her students and her own.