Film Fest Report : ‘School of Hope’ : Interview With Director Mohamed El Aboudi

We interviewed Documentary Filmmaker Mohamed El Aboudi on School of Hope, a beautiful and important film shot in the Moroccan desert, presented at the 2021 Tampere Film Festival, in Finland.

Finland-based Tampere Film Festival is currently in full swing! Dedicated to showcase the best Finnish, as well as international, short films and documentaries, the festival is taking place online this year, from March 10th to 14th, 2021. Among the festival’s National Competition this year is Mohamed El Aboudi’s latest documentary entitled School of Hope, a co-production between Finland, France and Morocco.

Climate change and overgrazing have brought poverty to the nomad tribes of the High Plateau of Atlas in Morocco. The Dehbi tribe is one of the oldest and last tribes left. Their ancestral way of life has been significantly tested by a decade-long drought and can no longer provide them with a living income. Now faced with the necessity to settle down, they feel more lost than when wandering with their cattle in the endless desert. Education becomes an essential struggle that also divides the community. To let a child go to school is to deprive oneself of a precious workforce. It might seem that there is not much hope for the children of the ‘School of Hope’, but the Dehbi are determined not to give up fighting…

Full interview : https://www.film-fest-report.com/home/the-school-of-hope