As this article is being posted, MIRAGES director Talal Selhami's second feature ACHOURA is making its world premiere at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. Judging by the trailer that has been released online the audience that has gathered to watch ACHOURA today is a lucky bunch, as it looks to be pretty cool.
Driven by the desire to make "the first Moroccan creature feature", Selhami teamed with Jawad Lahlou, and David Villemin, to write a screenplay about a monster that feeds on the joy of children. The resulting film has the following synopsis:
Ashura is a commemoration during Muharram (the first month in the Islamic calendar) which originally coincided with the beginning of a holy armistice. Peace also reigns at the beginning of this story. Somewhere in the Moroccan countryside, four children scare the living daylights out of each other, just for fun of course. In a house that is rumored to be the dwelling place of ghosts, one of them mysteriously disappears. A quarter-century later, the three remaining friends bump into their long-lost playmate. His reappearance coincides with a series of child kidnappings. Would he by any chance have something to do with that?
Iván González, Mohamed Choubi, Moussa Maaskri, Omar Lotfi, Sofiia Manousha, and Younes Bouab star.
We'll let you know when there's release news to share about ACHOURA. In the meantime, give the trailer a look: