IN THE CINÉMA CLUB OF… MERIEM BENNANI
The NYC-based artist and filmmaker Meriem Bennani makes artwork that engages political questions through playful means. Works like Party on the CAPS and 2 Lizards (co-directed with Orian Barki and now held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art) have seen her combine animation and documentary to satirical effect. Her first animated feature film Bouchra, also co-directed with Barki, premiered at the 2025 New York Film Festival and sees her expand upon these sensibilities. Set between New York and Casablanca, the film follows a queer Moroccan jackal working on a film about her relationship to her mother, her upbringing in Morocco, her precarious life in New York, and her sexuality.
HYENAS, Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1992
This is one of the most beautiful movies in the world. Aside from being such a funny and sharp political revenge story and creating unforgettable images, what I like the most about this film is the character of Linguere. She’s like a superhero, instantly iconic, but also so relatable in the vitality and heartbreak that fuel her vendetta, all while being hilarious.
MULHOLLAND DRIVE, David Lynch, 2001
Every time I think it’s not one of my favorite movies anymore, I rewatch it and find it perfect. Last time I watched it was at Metograph, and I noticed that one of the side character’s nipples were hard through her shirt in a way that was obviously intentional. It wasn’t there so much as a sexy thing but as a world-building detail, a tool to position you half a step aside from the familiar, within emotions and towards defined words, but not quite in the territory of nameable things yet.
ALLEGRO NON TROPPO, Bruno Bozzetto, 1976
This is the Italian socialist response to Disney’s Fantasia . The live action and animated segments are shaped against Fantasia’s project of demonstration of absolute technical prowess, but they are as technically impressive. The most famous segment is on Ravel’s Bolero and retraces the world's evolution starting from a drop of Coke. Some of this stuff is very basic critique, but what I love about good animation is that like our dreams the most obvious tropes can be choreographed into visceral experiences.
ALEXANDRIA… WHY?, Youssef Chahine, 1979
I have only been watching Youssef Chahine’s films in the past couple years, I think thanks to a renewed interest in his work that happened recently. I am choosing this film, but it’s very probable that I’ll discover a new one of his soon that will be my new favourite. I am a sucker for ensemble films with a tender take on family dynamics within political turning points (it’s a thing, no ?). I don’t usually enjoy nostalgia and sweetness too much, but there is something here that feels so historically grand through the beauty of everyday life — an instantly iconic cinematographic experience with a warm hugging wind. Kind of like what happens when you watch Amarcord .
THE FAVOURITE, Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018
I love Yorgos. I loved him even more after Kinds of Kindness because I didn’t enjoy the film, but the fact that it felt like such a freaky formal experiment right after he released his most Hollywood film, Poor Things , made me respect him a lot. So many directors just keep flattening their work when they get commercially successful, but he keeps playing with the medium and challenging us. Anyways, The Favourite is so beautiful to me in the way it’s visually too sharp for a period piece. It’s funny and ruthless but not cynical. It leaves space for heartbreak. Even at her lowest and cruelest, Lady Sarah’s (Rachel Weisz at her hottest) true love and care for Queen Anne slips through.