The warming diplomatic relations between Israel and Morocco, which are but an official stamp of the heartfelt, complex, longstanding relations between Israelis and Moroccans, took us on a thrilling cinematic journey in recent months into the depths of Moroccan cinema, past and present.

We are thrilled to paint the Festival this year in the bold colors, images and magic of Moroccan culture and offer you a special program that manifests contemporary Moroccan cinema. This via the daring films of award winning filmmaker Hicham Lasri who will attend the Festival, longtime filmmaker Izza Génini who will be our guest of honor and share with us in her words and films her experience as a Moroccan Jew in the villages and mountains of Morocco, as well as the esteemed filmmaker in Morocco and France, Simone Bitton, who will present her new film "Ziyara". We will also have a debut screening of short films from the ESAV École Supérieure des Arts Visuel de Marrakech in the presence of Vincent Melilli, the school's director, who will also be a judge in the "New South Cinema" graduate films competition.

During the Festival we will host new and old friends from Morocco, among others from the Migration Festival in Agadir, from the Moroccan embassy in Israel and other partners. The films will be accompanied by a special panel on contemporary Moroccan cinema hosted by Dr. Samir Ben Layashi and nocturnal poetry events with Israeli poets of Moroccan descent, hosted by poet and dean of the School of Audio and Visual Arts Prof. Sami Shalom Chetrit.

The gem of the Moroccan focus at the Festival is the world premiere of the films in the "Remembering Marrakech" project, in collaboration with the School of Audio and Visual Arts, the Connect Organization, the "Mahir" program at the Mohammed VI University in Ben Guerir and the Gesher Multicultural Film Fund; an original and refreshing collection of five short films that depict diverse perspectives on the Jewish community in Mellah, Marrakech, where one or two Jews remain. This fascinating production was made by teams comprised of determined and creative Israelis and Moroccans, and facilitated by the indefatigable Prof. Philippe Bellaïche and Prof. Sami Shalom Chetrit.  We went to Morocco, they came to Israel to produce, film and edit the collection.  We are pleased to debut the most challenging and complex projects ever done in the School of Audio and Visual Arts in all its many years.

The focus on Moroccan cinema at the Cinema South Festival expresses longing and intrigue. In the recent generations since the Jews left Morocco, a gap was formed in Morocco's memory of its Jews and now, in collaboration with many entities in Israel and Morocco, private and public, the process of amendment has begun. "Remembering Marrakech" is a major contribution to this process.