Much Loved (2015)

When I was much younger and poorer, I used to have a job like the one of the mostly silent gay chauffeur in this film: I drove a group of prostitutes from my Romanian homeland around and checked whether they were safe. Not so rare an occupation for gays, it seems. While watching this, I felt taken back directly to those days in the early 90s, and I still can't believe just how much this film got prostitution right. Every character corresponds to women I've met who did this job, with same goals, same social situation, same characteristics.The clients are in every detail like the clients I saw; Ayouch doesn't flinch to portray French men as wannabe machos who get deservedly ripped off, and Saudis as rich scum who cannot have sex without degrading the women they're paying, albeit handsomely. That's what may have gotten the film banned in Morocco, but what certainly did it is the scene in which the ladies get a little boy vendor to admit he's "going with the Europeans". The ban is almost ironic because this film is so much more than a portrait of contemporary Moroccan or Arab society; this really can and does happen anywhere.No film I've ever seen has corresponded so much to the reality of prostitution as I witnessed it, they're usually focusing on family issues to make the issue more palpable. This one doesn't, and Ayouch deserves more viewers and more respect for that.

This movie is about life of prostitutes in Morocco. Every fifteen minutes, someone f**ks someone. And there are some amazing things about it. The movie, by sheer means of visual storytelling, conveys how prostitutes can be loved, raped and abused, just like anyone else, even when all the three actions, on a physically level, are just sexual acts. You also get to see prostitution as just any job. You also see the challenges with this particular job - the boycott by family members and neighbours, feeling of loss of power with powerful clients / police etc. This movie offers a fine, realistic glimpse of the life of prostitutes in Morocco, portraying a very neutral look at their lives. You relate to them on many levels (good days at work, bad days at work, cracking jokes with friends, finding support and solace in friends in times of despair etc.).Above are the things that I liked, but there are issues with the movie too. There are passages which feel either repetitive or longer than they need to be. As a feature length movie, it falters many a times in the 'pace' department. It just keeps randomly slowing down, now and then and that's some major turn off, for a movie that otherwise has so much visual stimuli to turn you on, quite literally.

To be surrounded and yet be alone. To be loved and yet be invisible. To be cast away even as you are embraced. Welcome to the life of a Moroccan prostitute. From the testimonies of 200 real-life sex workers, Nabil Ayouch defied censorship to provide a fascinating, intimate and luminous glimpse into the Moroccan underworld. The story follows the fictional yet realistic lives of four women caught up in a passive- aggressive world. Bribing the police, projecting beautiful yet fabricated images and living on the edge of a knife, they turn to each other in order to live. It is beguiling to see the dark side of Morocco and witness these surreal lives that are lonely and solitary even as they are crowded with attention and "love." The acting is capable yet the story and characters could use just a little more depth. Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2015.

This movie shows in a very realistic form what is behind prostitution: the life and feelings of prostitute themselves. Some scenes are very crude, but there is no vulgarity or pornography in this movie; the reality which is presented is vulgar, the film is not. The intelligent aspect of this movie is that it doesn't impose any moral judgment: it only shows facts, people, the ones who pay for prostitution, the ones who take advantage of it (sometimes condemning it at the same time), the ones who accept it... Even if the reality of the four women and the man making their living by selling their body is often sad, the movie is not tearful; it is full of life, energy and some lines are even very funny. The three main actresses play with great talents these subtle and difficult roles.