May is a teacher. Serge, her husband, is a novelist who works as a receptionist in a Parisian hotel. His new book is rejected everywhere. Faced with the arrival of a baby, he wonders how he and May are going to manage financially. One evening, Serge meets Rahman, a celebrated writer against whom a fatwa has been issued - as a result of which, there is a $3.3 Million bounty on his head. Serge resolves to kill the author, but as his murderous obsession grows, his happy, orderly life starts to come apart at the seams.

A film by Hicham Lasri

Morocco, Feature Drama

Director's statement
Happy Lovers is a polyphonic tale of characters whose origins vary and who reside within disparate cultural and religious contexts. They live in a grotesque world - one where it is acceptable that the murder of a person for having written a book that expresses an opinion be legitimised. It is ironic to compare this fable to our world today, whose contours have been recast since the events of 11 September 2001. People are blinded by their own needs, and end up committing the worst of atrocities in the name of religion, nationalism, political parties and the like. Happy Lovers is a contemporary tale about the subdivision of identity and about discord in times of crisis. Or, perhaps, how a family can be undermined by greed and moral decay.


Director
Hicham Lasri

Producer
Lamia Chraibi

Production
La Prod (Morocco)
Lamia Chraibi
lamia(@)laprod.ma

Total Budget:
€2 676 000

Partners
Centre Cinématographique Marocain

Shooting period and locations
July 2021, Morocco, Europe (France, Belgium and/or Switzerland)

Expected Release
October 2022

2020 | Festival International du Film de Marrakech, Maroc | Édition digitale | 30 Novembre - 3 Décembre 2020
* Selection (Projects): 2020 Workshops - Atlas Close-Ups
* Financing secured: €395 000
* Looking for: International sales, distributor, TV broadcaster, platforms, co-production
https://atlasateliers.festivalmarrakech.info/en/selection/2020/happy-lovers