Crossing the Seventh Gate

At a glance

Crossing the Seventh Gate, is a 2017 Moroccan movie, directed by Ali Essafi, and starring Ahmed Bouanani, Naïma Saoudi, Touda Bouanani. with a runtime of 80 minutes.

Overview

Crossing the Seventh Gate is a Moroccan documentary in which filmmaker Ali Essafi visits the late Ahmed Bouanani — filmmaker, poet, novelist, and visual artist — three years before his death. The film captures Bouanani living in self-imposed seclusion in a remote village alongside his wife Naïma and numerous cats, surrounded by towering stacks of books, manuscripts, and decades of creative output. Part portrait, part pilgrimage, the documentary serves as both an intimate record of an extraordinary creative life and an act of cultural preservation — rescuing from obscurity one of Moroccan cinema's most singular and underappreciated voices.

Tags