12:00 – 13:18

Director: Mohammed El Aboudi

Co-producer: Lamia Chraibi, La Prod / Aimee Link, Vulcan Productions / Hind Saïh, Bellota Films / Dominique Barneaud, Bellota Films

Time: 1h 18 min

Year: 2020

For ages: Suitable for all ages / S

Language: Arabia / English subtitles

School of Hope is an intimate and charming portrait of optimism in the harshest of environments. In the vast expanse of desert East of Atlas Mountains in Morocco, seasonal rain and snow once supported livestock, but now the drought seems to never end.

Hardly a blade of grass can be seen, and families travel miles on foot to get water from a muddy hole in the ground. Yet the children willingly ride donkeys and bicycles or walk for miles across rocks to a “school of hope” built of clay.