Changing Times

Antoine arrives in Tangiers from Europe. He is on an assignment to supervise the setting up of an audiovisual centre, his task being to expedite the process. However, Antoine is secretly hoping that he will find Cécile here. His quietly obsessive love for her has endured for more than thirty years. Cécile has forgotten Antoine. She emigrated to north Africa and has since endured the trials and tribulations of marital routine with Nathan, a doctor of Moroccan-Jewish extraction who is her junior in age. The couple have a son, Samy, who lives in Paris and comes to visit them during the holidays. The film takes place towards the end of the summer. Samy arrives at his parents’ house, bringing with him his partner, Nadia, and her child, whose father is unknown. Samy and Nadia are a chaste couple. Arming themselves, they protect each other from all manner of adversities in order to live out their various passions. Nadia has to learn to let go of her twin sister Aicha – and as a result finds herself embroiled in a bitter struggle against her inner demons. Samy has to learn to bring his affection for Bilal into accord with his tenderness for Nadia. Theirs is a little holiday world in which Cécile finds it impossible to find a balance. Experiencing nothing but restlessness and self-doubt, the familiar has become quite alien to her. Lonely, wealthy and unmolested by life’s storms, Antoine appears like a ghost from the past expressing his desire for a pure, unshakable ideal of love. Does being cloistered inside his gentle obsession make him invincible? What is this all about? It’s nothing but a dream, counters Cécile, the realist. But, who knows, perhaps this dream will, unwittingly, become reality.