‘Casablanca Beats’ Filmmaker Nabil Ayouch is Wrapping ‘Everybody Loves Touda,’ MK2 Films Boards Sales (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Nabil Ayouch, a leading Moroccan filmmaker whose latest movie as a producer “The Blue Caftan” became the first Moroccan film to ever make it to the Oscars shortlist, is wrapping up his next directorial effort, “Everybody Loves Touda.” Now in post-production, “Everybody Loves Touda” follows the journey of a strong-willed woman, along the lines of some of Ayouch’s best known films, such as “Much Loved” and “Razzia,” which played at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and Toronto, respectively.

The movie will mark Ayouch’s directorial follow up to “Casablanca Beats,” which competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 and marked the first Moroccan feature to vie for a Palme d’Or. “Everybody Loves Touda” tells the story a young poetess and singer known as a Shaeirat, who raises her deaf-mute son in a small Moroccan village.

Hoping to give her son a better future and more opportunities in life, she moves with him to Casablanca where she faces setbacks. “Everybody Loves Touda” was co-written by Ayouch and his wife Maryam Touzani, an actor-turned filmmaker who made her directorial debut with “Adam” and teamed with Ayouch to write her sophomore outing, “The Blue Caftan.” MK2 Films is handling international sales on the movie, while Paris-based distribution company Ad Vitam will distribute it in France.

Touda will be played by Nisrin Erradi, who broke through with her supporting role in Touzani’s feature debut “Adam,” which represented Morocco at the Oscars in 2020.