Directed by Oliver Laxe
Picturehouse, Liverpool
19th September 2017

Reviewed by Colin Serjent

This is a highly visual film, set mainly amid the towering Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

Moroccan-based Spanish director Oliver Laxe use of non-professional actors makes it seem at times like it is a documentary, such was the realism of the acting.

Mimosas is what is termed ‘slow cinema’., which is to my taste.

Laxe has described the film as ‘being about faith than religion.’

It commences in a Moroccan town where a workforce is recruited to drive a fleet of taxis across the desert.

Among them is a somewhat eccentric young man called Skakib (Shakib Ben Omar), who is believed to be blessed, barakain in Arabic terms. He is assigned the task of escorting the entourage through the Atlas Mountains to reach the destination of a place named Sijilmasa, which has been designated by an elderly sheikh, who wants to be buried there.

But the sheikh dies during the journey, which leads Shakib, plus two of the other travellers, to take his body to his desired resting place.

But perilous dangers from inhospitable nature and hostile inhabitants of the mountains awaits them.

Mimosas is split into a prelude and three chapters, listed after different positions, bowing, standing and prostrating, named after prayer positions from the Islamic Rakat.

The imagery is stunning to behold – the cinematographer being Mauro Herce – making it a highly watchable experience.

Forthcoming films under the ‘Discover Tuesday’ label include Step (26 September); On Body And Soul (3 October); Pecking Order (10 October); Bushwick (17 October); A Ghost Story (24 October); and Perfect Blue (31 October).

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