Atlas Mountains: Last News

French-Moroccan actor and comedian Jamel Debbouze is urging tourists to keep visiting Morocco in the wake of an earthquake in the country’s Atlas Mountains region that has killed close to 3,000 people.

The Marrakech Film Festival celebrated its 20th edition this year, arriving at the landmark some 22 years after its 2001 launch due to the missed years of the pandemic.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Pape Boye’s Black Mic Mac, a recently launched banner championing African and Middle Eastern talent, is kicking off a strong first roster of projects including “Let the Earth Burn” from Sundance-prizewinning Sofia Alaoui and “The Bridge” creator Måns Mårlind. “Let the Earth Burn” is a six-part series following Kenza, a recent graduate of the police academy working in a remote station nestled in the Atlas Mountains. Surrounded by misogynistic colleagues, she starts investigating on the disappearance of some shepherds’ children. Alaoui’s credits include “So What if the Goats Die,” which won best short film at Cannes and Sundance in 2021, and “Animalia,” which won the Grand Jury prize at this year’s Sundance. Mårlind is one Europe’s best-known series’ creator with credits including “Midnight Sun” and “The Bridge” and “Shadowplay.” The film is produced by Barney Prods. and co-produced by Black Mic Mac. Other projects on the outfit’s slate include the female-powered thriller “Three Cold Dishes,” which revolves around teenagers who were sold into the sex trade who then set off to take their revenge. The movie will be directed by Asurf Oluseyi and is produced by Ifind, Alma Prods., Asurf Films and Martian Network. Black Mic Mac is repping sales in addition to co-producing.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent French-Moroccan director Sofia Alaoui made a splash at Sundance with her sci-fi thriller “Animalia,” which used genre to explore dark sides of Moroccan society. The filmmaker is now employing similar tropes in the early stages on a TV series titled “Let the Earth Burn.” “Animalia,” winner of the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision within Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition, is about a pregnant young woman from a rural Berber background who winds up emancipating herself as aliens land in Morocco. “Let the Earth Burn,” unveiled during the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra Arab film and TV series projects incubator this week, takes its cue from real abductions and slayings in remote areas of Morocco of kids known as “Zouhri” whom the kidnappers believe have supernatural powers.

Marrakech, with its delicious food, colourful souks and tranquil riads, is a magnet for celebs. Madonna rang in her 60th birthday in the Moroccan city, Idris Elba got hitched there and David Beckham celebrated his 40th at the chic Amanjena resort. OK! stayed at Marrakech’s most luxurious resort, the five-star Selman, just outside the old city walls.

The Sahara Desert has seen a snowfall settle into the sand as temperatures dropped below freezing in a rare phenomenon.Ice and snow covered the dunes of the largest desert in the world, where temperatures as high as 58C have been recorded.Photographer Karim Bouchetata captured the stunning images of snow and ice covering the sand in the town of Ain Sefra in Algeria, January 18.Overnight temperatures plummeted, with the Algerian town charting lows of -2C (28F).The ice and snow that fell on the usually warm sand created stunning patterns after an unexpected sprinkling of snow covered the area.The snowy dusting is the fifth time in 42 years that the Algerian town has seen snow, with the last four occurrences in 2021, 2018, 2016 and decades ago in 1979.At around 3,000ft above sea level, Ain Serfa, known as The Gateway to the Desert, is surrounded by the Atlas Mountains.Covering most of Northern Africa, the Sahara Desert has gone through climate changes, temperature shifts and varying moisture levels over the past few hundred thousand years.Although the Sahara is very dry today, it is expected to become green again in about 15,000 years.Camels were gripped by the extreme temperatures of North Africa, seen surrounded by snow in the summer and winter months.Snow and ice in desert regions is unusual but not rare or obscure, especially now that January, one of the the coldest months for Algeria, is in full effect.Dramatic temperature drops in the past few years have seen snowfall in the North African region and in the Middle East too.January of 2021 and 2022 saw temperatures dip below freezing and both the Sahara Desert and Saudi Arabia were covered in snow.2018 was the third time Ain Serfa was coated in snow, and now the area