{"id":81,"date":"2026-05-17T12:37:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T12:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=81"},"modified":"2026-05-17T12:37:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T12:37:54","slug":"director-laila-marrakchi-on-female-driven-migrant-drama-strawberries-in-cannesthese-women-are-so-strong-so-capable-so-courageous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=81","title":{"rendered":"Director Laila Marrakchi on Female-Driven Migrant Drama Strawberries in Cannes:\u2019These Women Are So Strong, So Capable, So Courageous\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tParis-based, Casablanca-born director Laila Marrakchi \u2013 whose first feature \u201cMarock\u201d screened in Cannes in 2005 \u2013 is back in Un Certain Regard with female-driven migrant drama \u201cStrawberries\u201d about a group of Moroccan seasonal laborers hired to pick strawberries in Spain who decide to stand up to their abusive employers.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=79\">\u2018The Station\u2019 Review: A Long-Gestating, Female-Centered Project Set in Yemen That\u2019s Well Worth the Wait<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tAfter portraying Morocco\u2019s upper classes in \u201cMarock\u201d and \u201cRock the Casbah\u201d (2013) \u2013 and then veering into TV by directing episodes of Damien Chazelle\u2019s \u201cThe Eddy\u201d for Netflix and of several French TV series including \u201cThe Bureau\u201d \u2013 Marrakchi now turns her eye to the true story of young women who leave Morocco for a strawberry farm in Southern Spain in hopes of providing a better life for their families, only to contend with harassment and inhumane living conditions. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tMarrakchi speaks to<em> Variety<\/em> about transitioning from depicting Morocco\u2019s moneyed milieu to delving into the lives of lower class Moroccan women whose steely pursuit of a better life she found inspiring.<\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>How did \u2018Strawberries\u2019 originate?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\n\tA journalist who is a very close friend of mine told me about this woman, [named Hasna in the film], who left her family to go to Spain to work on a strawberry farm and once she was there decided to fight against the exploitation that was taking place. My friend was assigned to do an article about this for The New York Times. So I went with her to Andalusia, to Huelva, precisely. And I really discovered another world, so I decided to do some research and meet her and some pickers. I was really moved by this woman. That\u2019s why I decided to do this film.<\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>So it\u2019s the female prism on migrant worker exploitation that\u2019s not just economic but also sexual, that drew you to this story. Am I right?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\n\tYes. They are all mothers and they leave their families behind and go to Spain for money, hoping for a better life in Morocco after doing this work. For me, it was the fact that these women are so strong, so capable, so courageous. And when I met them, I realized that I had always wanted to make a film about this type of women. Not a miserable film, but something about their strengths. They don\u2019t have any skills, you know, they don\u2019t have anything. But they are strong.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=78\">Brillante Mendoza Casts Judy Ann Santos, Jeanne Balibar and Stacy Martin in \u2018Aid\u2019; Fire &amp; Ice, Ghost City, Human Films Producing (EXCLUSIVE)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>This is a very vivid film. Tell me more about the research and the writing process<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tI met the real characters that my friend told me about. But in the end, I decided to make a fictional film because it was really complicated and I was not making a documentary. So in the end, with my screenwriter, Delphine Agut, we decided that it was best to take some distance from all that we had seen and read and work on it also with our imagination. Because for Hasna coming to Spain is like getting a second chance in life and it\u2019s like a dream. So the film is about how the illusion of this dream, of this El Dorado, is then shattered by reality. <\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>Talk to me about your casting choices: specifically working with Nisrin Erradi, who plays Hasna. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\n\tWhen I was in prep I thought about using the real [strawberry] pickers. But then I said \u2018No,\u2019 because it\u2019s ultimately a fictional story, so I prefer to go with real actresses. Also, it\u2019s a lot of responsibility when you work with non-actresses. Because after the film, what\u2019s gonna happen to them? So I said: OK, I love Nisrin. I think she\u2019s strong. I saw her in \u201cEverybody Loves Touda\u201d and in \u201cAdam.\u201d She\u2019s powerful. She was the character that I wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>Was there any backlash in Spain while you were making this film?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\n\tYes. When we scouted in Spain, it was complicated for us to visit a real farm because of the news articles that had come out about the exploitation in Andalusia. People get scared when they see a camera. That\u2019s why we shot the greenhouses in Morocco.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=76\">Grace Caroline Currey to Lead Crime Thriller \u2018Dead Miles,\u2019 VMI Launching Sales in Cannes (EXCLUSIVE)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paris-based, Casablanca-born director Laila Marrakchi discusses her female-driven migrant drama &#8216;Strawberries&#8217; bowing in Cannes&#8217; Un Certain Regard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,99,100],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-laila-marrakchi","tag-strawberries"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Director Laila Marrakchi on Female-Driven Migrant Drama Strawberries in Cannes:\u2019These Women Are So Strong, So Capable, So Courageous\u2019 - 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