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A Thousand Months (2003)
Director: Faouzi Bensaidi
AS/A2 Study Guide written by
Muntasir Al-Hamad and
Mohamad AlJarrah

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INTRODUCTION /
This study guide is relevant to AS/A2 and equivalent level Arabic.
AS/A2 TOPICS include: Village life, family relationships, school life, religion; Ramadan, prayers, social
issues, special occasions, isolation, poverty, authority and fear.
Themes include: Respect, work, education, relationship, hope, belief and responsibility.
Director:
Writers:
Cast:
Cinematography:
Edited by:
Production Company:
Country:
Release Date:
Language:
Running time:
Faouzi Bensaidi
Faouzi Bensaidi
Emmanuelle Sardou
Fouad Labied (Mehdi)
Nezha Rahile (Amina)
Mohamed Majd (Grandfather)
Mohammed Afifi (Houcine)
Abdelati Lambarki (Caid)
Mohamed Bastaoui (Caid’s Brother) and others
Antoine Héberlé
Sandrine Deegen
Laurant Lavolé and Isabelle Pragier
France, Morocco
16 May 2003
Arabic (Moroccan Dialect)
119 minutes approx
CREDITS /

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SYNOPSIS /

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BEFORE THE FILM /
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Pre-viewing activities

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2a
2b

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3

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DURING THE FILM /
While-watching activities
4

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AFTER THE FILM /
Post-viewing activities
5

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6

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(a) A Thousand Months is a stark but lovely evocation of the many melodramas that simultaneously haunt
and enliven a Moroccan village in the Atlas Mountains during the month of Ramadan in 1981. The story’s
intertwining, fleeting threads recall Altman’s Short Cuts, but the sly playfulness of the film’s tone more
accurately reflects Elia Suleiman’s more overtly political Divine Intervention and Otar Iosseliani’s Tati homage
Monday Morning. The film ostensibly concerns the coming of age of young Mehdi (Fouad Labied), who carries
around the chair his love-struck professor sits on during class. But the narrative soon opens up, cataloging
the various deceptions and romantic entanglements of other characters: a local television programmer who
plays God by cutting off the town’s entertainment for the girl who goes on to marry the town’s lascivious “kaid”;
Mehdi’s mother, Amina (Nezha Rahil), who keeps her activist husband’s imprisonment a secret from her son
and attempts to move on with a new man; and the boy’s grandfather, the practical Ahmed (Mohammed
Majd), who struggles to keep everyone’s faith despite the family’s blistering poverty.
Director Faouzi Bensaidi’s incredible use of widescreen is rigorous but never suffocating. Because there’s only
a handful of close-ups in the entire film (a zoom into the static of a television program and a shot of Amina’s
face as seen through a pair of binoculars), A Thousand Months has the texture of a photo album. And in
isolating the filmic action to one side of the frame, or separating multiple actions by creating distinct planes
within the same frame, Bensaidi often parallels human movement to that of the stars above. The film begins
on the first day of Ramadan with a shot of a crescent moon nestled in the sky near a twinkling star and ends
on Id ul Fitr with a disastrous wedding ceremony. Because the film’s simple themes of entitlement, shame, and
responsibility are so wondrously cushioned by and implied in Bensaidi’s comical set pieces and cosmological
flights of fancy, it makes Mehdi’s symbolic struggle with his teacher’s chair a little less cloying.
(Reviewed by Ed Gonzalez, 2003)
[Source: http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/a-thousand-months/752]

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1
2
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Role-Play Activity /
The Situation /
Please refer to the film stills to help you with this question
When the question of Mehdi’s father’s whereabouts arises, Mehdi’s mother asks Mehdi’s grandfather to lie and
write a letter pretending it is from Mehdi’s father saying he is in France. Mehdi’s grandfather on the other hand is not
happy about lying and wants to tell him the truth.

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Further Reading /
For the English translation visit: http://www.al-hakawati.net/english/states/state21.asp

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Reviews
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=10148
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0325826/
http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/mille_mois/
http://en.unifrance.org/movie/23415/mille-mois
About the Director
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0072364/
http://works-and-places.appartement22.com/spip.php?article17
http://en.unifrance.org/directories/person/305623/faouzi-bensaidi
http://www.trigon-film.org/en/directors/Faouzi_Bensaidi
http://www.blockbuster.com/browse/catalog/personDetails/201790
About Arab and North African Cinema
Dwyer, Kevin, Beyond Casablanca. M.A. Tazi and the adventure of Moroccan Cinema. (Bloomington
2004)
Khatib, Lina, Filming the Modern Middle East: Politics in the Cinemas of Hollywood and the Arab
World. (I. B. Tauris 2006)
Landau, Jacob, Studies in the Arab Theatre and Cinema. (1958)
Leaman, Oliver (editor), Companion Encyclopaedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film.
(Routledge 2001)
Naficy, Hamid, An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Disporic Fimmaking. (Princeton University Press
2001)
Sadoul, Georges, The Cinema in the Arab Countries: Anthology prepared for UNESCO. (Beirut:
Interarab Centre of Cinema & Television 1966)
Shafik, Viola, Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity. (American University in Cairo Press 1998)
www.mincom.gov.ma/cinemaroc/ Moroccan Cinematography Center
www.cinemathequedetanger.com/ Cinematheque de Tanger (CDT)
www.africanfilm.com
www.arabfilm.com
http://www.ngsw.org/~afrmedia/bib.php Bibliography about the African Cinema
About the Arab Countries
http://www.arableagueonline.org/
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.hejleh.com/countries/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/country_profiles/default.stm
http://www.eldis.org/country/
http://www.economist.com/countries/
http://www.infoplease.com/countries.html
http://www.worldbank.org/countries
http://www.geographic.org/countries/countries.html
http://www.un.org/
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/mi.asp
Bibliography and Webliography

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In partnership with: Supported by:
Cornerhouse funders:
Arabic Study Guide was produced for Cornerhouse (part of Projector: Community
Languages) and written by Dr. Muntasir Al-Hamad, Lecturer of Arabic and
Mohamad AlJarrah, Arabic Language Tutor from Manchester Metropolitan University.
Download this study guide from: http://www.cornerhouse.org/resources/
Further study guides from our Community Languages programme include:
A Thousand Months (2003) GCSE Arabic Study Guide
Jodhaa Akbar (2008) AS/A2 Urdu Study Guide
Little Red Flowers (2006) GCSE Mandarin Study Guide
Pranzo Di Ferragosto / Mid-August Lunch (2008) GCSE Italian Study Guide
The Road Home (2000) GCSE Mandarin Study Guide
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