Maghreb Film Festival: The Ants

At the border between Morocco and Spain, near Melilla, the lives of three people become intertwined. Félicité, a young migrant from Cameroon, returns to Tangier after the tragic death of her friend, determined to earn enough money to give her a Christian burial. Hamid, a recruiter who makes a living exploiting migrant workers, sees his own carefully constructed world begin to fall apart. Meanwhile, Kenza, a wealthy young mother, hires Félicité as a nanny against her husband’s wishes, setting off tensions within her marriage.

Through these three interconnected stories, Fennane portrays a Morocco shaped by migration, economic inequality and social divisions. Rather than reducing migration to a story of borders and displacement, The Ants follows the people caught within these systems: their ambitions, compromises, prejudices and attempts to find a way forward.

With a restrained, socially grounded approach, Fennane brings together three very different perspectives on contemporary Morocco. The result is a film about migration and inequality, but also about dignity, human connection and the possibility of starting over.