I came across this movie and was taken into this beautiful depiction of life. and death, and love and everything what is to be human. Strong women, funny and real, where we learn that being human is a path of growth and learning..

Rock the Casbah starts out like a comedy. Sofia (Morjana Alaoui) returns home to Morocco for the funeral of her father, a wealthy but controlling entrepreneur who, despite dying, appears as a ghost commenting on the proceedings for much of the film. Sofia left claustrophobic Morocco years ago to be an actress in America where her only roles have been as terrorists and generic villains much to her family's shame.

Her sisters are wealthy and judgmental, but they have their own problems and are married to men they don't love but who their father approved of. Furthering the tension in this family reunion is the fact that Sofia was close to her eldest sister who died years ago and who's death she blames on her father.

There is lots of fun cultural and family commentary but when the secrets are revealed they are actually quite dark and disturbing and the last minute shift in tone is so abrupt it's quite jarring in context with the rest of the film.

The actors are great and Laïla Marrakchi has a keen eye for the lifestyle of the rich in Morocco but ultimately the film doesn't make a great impression.

Bring together members of a well-off family who've gone their separate ways with daddy's money (the altruist/good girl, the independent/artist, the lazy/narcissistic) around daddy's funeral, add a cheap sleeping w/ the maid / unknown half-brother/sister incestuous relation & a suicide plot and you've got enough material to last 1h45. The problem is nothing ever happens to make you CARE about the characters so 1 hour into the movie, after you've figured it all out and you give up on the story ever going past 2nd gear, you start guessing when will the brother/mother/sister/etc. find out and how... The end is just as predictable as the rest and if you hadn't guessed it, you couldn't care less.

Give a similar underlying drama to a genius like Denis Villeneuve (incendies) and you have a story that will trouble you for days. Give it to the part time 'script consultants' who wrote Rock the Casbah's scenario and you've got a beautifully shot concentrated episode of "Young & the Restless". It's a shame when you think all these resources could have been put to such good use.

Once again (re. Marock) we're held hostage by the Director's love/hate relationship with her native country but the hate part comes out as miss-directed bashing coming from a spoiled brat instead of something really constructive.