A closeted gay tailor struggles to keep his shop alive. To expedite his slow production of made-to-order caftans, he hires a talented young man as an apprentice.
A tender, transfixing film, Maryam Touzani’s second feature is a sensuous portrait of delicately involved handcraft. It’s also a quietly radical take on Muslim ideology and boldly modernizing convention.
Cast & Release Date
Maryam Touzani, who made her first feature in 2019 with Adam, returns to Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section three years later with this delicate artisanal exploration of an enduring, emotionally resonant marriage. The Blue Caftan unfolds in Morocco’s oldest medina, where Halim (Saleh Bakri) and his wife Mina (Lubna Azabal), a master embroiderer, run a small shop making traditional caftans.
The film explores the complexities of their marriage and relationships, particularly when a new apprentice arrives, Youssef (Ayoub Missioui), who becomes engrossed in the intricate embroidery patterns that Halim’s hands hand-stitched onto his one-of-a-kind garments. Shot in long takes and tight close-ups, Touzani’s gentle observation of these two artisans’ delicately honed skills is an elegant study of their emotional ties.
The adhan, the Muslim call to prayer, permeates Sale’s medina, echoing in the side streets Halim and Mina frequent between their work at their caftan store and their cozy apartment. It also accompanies Halim’s brief weekly encounters with anonymous male lovers at the town’s hammam.
Director
Maryam Touzani, a Moroccan writer-director known for her work in the country’s unfussy art-house films, returns with this delicately restrained take on a closeted homosexual love story set in one of Sale’s liveliest medinas. Halim (Saleh Bakri) and his wife Mina (Lubna Azabal, so memorable in Adam) run a shop that specializes in hand-stitched robes in the tradition of their late father.
With a backlog of orders, they hire a quiet young man, Youssef (Ayoub Missioui), to assist with pattern-making and embroidery. Halim’s exemplary craftsmanship on an exquisite blue caftan is particularly inspiring to Youssef, who admires his patience and attention.
As in her debut film, Touzani focuses on the small gestures that characterize the relationship. Whether they’re a pair of wistful, spontaneous walks in the medina or Halim’s tenderness when Mina is dying, Touzani gives us an emotional reality that breaks down traditional prejudices.
Starring
In the medina of Morocco’s northern town of Sale, Halim (Saleh Bakri) and Mina (Lubna Azabal, so memorable in Adam) run a traditional caftan store. They hire a young man, Youssef (gifted newcomer Ayoub Missioui), as an apprentice to expedite orders.
Youssef is drawn to Halim’s devotion to old-fashioned dressmaking, a craft that’s now increasingly difficult to find. Halim refuses to use a sewing machine, instead sewn his garments by hand and granting them the same care and attention that Renaissance painters bestowed on their artworks.
He and his wife work long hours to keep their business afloat, but Halim’s insistence on craftsmanship doesn’t always win him customers who want faster service or whose demands aren’t compatible with his artisanal approach. The result is that Halim and Mina often delay making their caftans, leading to an underlying tension that eventually threatens their marriage.
Writer-director Maryam Touzani delicately reframes her film’s complicated plot, never compromising the depth of her characters’ emotional resonances. She also takes time to explore a relationship that defies the conventions of gender and sexuality in this conservative society, demonstrating that even when two people want the same things, they have to learn to compromise.
Synopsis
After her well-received debut, writer-director Maryam Touzani returns to Cannes with a film of exquisite tenderness. Her second feature, The Blue Caftan, tells the story of Halim and Mina (Saleh Bakri and Lubna Azabal) who run a traditional caftan shop in one of Morocco’s oldest medinas.
As a young boy, Halim learned the art of making these intricately embroidered robes, or “caftans,” from his father. He and his wife, Mina (Lubna Azabal), live and work in the medina of Sale, a place where traditions still thrive.
When a difficult client orders a petrol blue caftan with golden stitches, Halim spends hours crafting it, even though his deadline has passed. His careful creation of a dazzling garment serves as a metaphor for the enduring beauty of the art and the patience it takes to craft it.
Halim and Mina’s staid routines are thrown off course when a quiet, handsome young man arrives at their shop to become an apprentice. As he learns the intricacies of pattern-making, tailoring and embroidery from his master, Youssef slowly realizes how much he wants to be more than just an employee.
