The Park
Directed by Randa MaroufiA place with nebulous frontiers and laws. Characters captured in an existence whose outlines flee the camera's gaze. Such is the world of the old fairground located in the Arab League Park in Casablanca that Randa Maroufi leads us into. Actions frozen in gestures of exchange, expectation and aggression are played out following a score conducted by the artist who, in the manner of Eric Baudelaire, uses composition to explore reality. But this reality is also virtual, for these scenes come in part from a repertoire of violent self-representations found on the Internet. The artist reprises their vocabulary. Violence, she tells us, is a language, and its interpretation is a matter of context. A strange vitality emanates from the gentle immobility of the silent travelling shot that drifts through the scenes acted out by the local inhabitants, whether simply passing through or precarious residents. Like the roughness of the vegetal and urban architecture of the abandoned park, these existences are not festive, yet they celebrate life's endurance, a vital energy that is hidden yet tenacious. Maroufi's Le Park escapes along each hidden path, leading us on in a gentle dream whose outcome is never revealed to us. Indifferent to our presence, it murmurs its silent rhythm. These scenes, these lives - the artist began by approaching them with restraint, then trust, and always with respect. Without ever seeking to appropriate the indomitable park or the existences that inhabit it, Maroufi leads us into an intimate world on the threshold of an intensity at once real and fantasised. The artist thus draws, incisively yet delicately as if with a metal tip, a forgotten tale at the heart of the city but on the margins of the world.
Where to Watch The Park
