Gardens of Fez
Short description
Film
Director’s biography
Gardens of Fez is a long-term research and film project by Heidi Vogels that centers on the walled gardens in the medina of Fez in Morocco.
This research throughout the years unfolded a cartography of spaces, practices and knowledges linked to the garden. Drawing on the notion of heterotopia as drafted by Michel Foucault, Gardens of Fez explores the interplay of different dimensions of a shared reality as it used to be. The garden exists therefore as a space in between, allowing moving from the site to the subjectivities that inhabit(ed) it.
Film
Rajae Drissi reminisces about her memories of the medina, the old town of Fez, its gardens, and waterways. Places that induced a sense of mystery and discovery inside her are now disappearing or turning into ruins. Recalling the stories that relate to the city's spirit, she decides to work on a play. On her rooftop, she begins a rehearsal that seemingly unfolds into a patchwork of stories in the medina: from her daughter Camelia investigating trance rituals to a poet in the tradition of Melhun remembering a story of love, to an older man working on one of the last plots in the medina. Through these stories, the gardens evoke a city where worlds of memory and imagination are still deeply intertwined with everyday reality.
Director’s biography
Heidi Vogels (1978) is an Amsterdam-based artist and filmmaker. She studied Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. Her multi-layered stories explore the interstices of what she calls ‘the different sets of the visible’ within the social and cultural setting of place. For several years her work centers on the space of the garden in research based film projects such as in Fez and in the oases of Tighmert in Morocco.
Technical details
Participants
Main crew
With the support of
Title: Gardens of Fez
Duration: 60 min.
Aspect ratio: Format: HD, 4K
Year: 2023
Original language: Moroccan Arabic, French
Subtitles: English
Countries of production: Morocco, Netherlands
Written and directed by Heidi Vogels
Produced by Heidi Vogels in collaboration with Manon Bovenkerk near / by film
Participants
Rajae Drissi, Kamelia Elhakim, Hassan Saghrousni, Fouad Rahlmane, Mohammed El Hadri, Rachid Haloui, Rahoui Lahcen
Main crew
Director of Photography: Benito Strangio
Editor: Stella van Voorst van Beest
Sound recordist: Mohammed Chokrallah ,
Marjo Postma, Heidi Vogels
Sound mix: Boban Bajic
With the support of
Film Fonds, Mondriaan Fonds, AFK, VSB fonds, Institut Francais Fes, Culture Vultures Fez, Embassy of the Netherlands Rabat