Characters Hope Is of a Different Color Magda Lipska & Monika Talarczyk

Mostafa Derkaoui: Moroccan Filmmaker and the Search for a Different Cinema

Overview

Mostafa Derkaoui is one of the central figures in Hope Is of a Different Color, representing the generation of Moroccan filmmakers who studied at the Łódź Film School during the 1960s and 1970s. The book frames him as a politically engaged artist who sought to create a socially critical, modernist cinema rooted in Moroccan reality. His student works, especially The Adoption and his jazz-club documentary, exemplify the transnational solidarity, creative freedom, and later disillusionment that define the Łódź experience for Global South filmmakers. Derkaoui’s trajectory—from philosophy student and theater activist to award‑eligible director whose feature remained unfinished for decades—embodies the book’s central theme of hope that endures despite censorship, exile, and archival loss.

Plot Role and Chronological Arc

Derkaoui’s narrative arc in the book unfolds in three phases: pre‑Łódź formation, Łódź years, and post‑Poland struggle.

Pre‑Łódź (1950s–1964): Born to a carpenter in Casablanca, Derkaoui studied philosophy at Lycée Lyautey and attended the Casablanca theater conservatory. He was already a political activist—he joined the Moroccan Communist Party and participated in the 1965 demonstrations. His first film was the short Les 4 murs, an adaptation of Sean O’Casey, and he briefly studied cinematography at IDHEC in Paris but left after a few months, finding the school too oriented toward criticism rather than filmmaking.

Łódź Years (1964–1971): Encouraged by his brother Abdelkrim, Derkaoui applied to Łódź because Poland seemed more open than the USSR. At school, he embraced the documentary approach of Kazimierz Karabasz, learning that social themes were crucial. His second‑year project The Adoption—about a biracial orphan named Agnieszka—nearly got him in trouble when school authorities feared it would project a racist image of Poland. Derkaoui also made a film about a jazz cellar in Warsaw, capturing an artistic community. He was influenced by phenomenology (Heidegger, Husserl) and wanted cinema to “circulate like a rhizome,” using close‑ups and movement to stay close to faces, words, and gestures. His apartment in Łódź became an open house for Moroccan and Syrian friends to discuss politics and art.

Return to Morocco (1973 onward): Promised protection by CCM director Ziani, Derkaoui returned in 1973 to make his first feature About Some Meaningless Events. The film was shot in 1974 but never completed, and Derkaoui spent decades trying to finish it. Many of his subsequent works were banned or lost, including La femme rurale (co‑directed with Lagtaa, 1989). The book presents his later career as a testament to the “potential cinema” that was suppressed by the Moroccan state but remains a vital alternative history.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Derkaoui’s driving motivation is the desire to create a cinema that is both authentic and critical—one that speaks to Moroccan society while avoiding the models of capitalist or traditional Third World cinema. He is driven by a conviction that film can expose injustice, especially toward marginalized groups (orphans, the Roma, artists). His traits include:

  • Intellectual curiosity: He studied philosophy, read Husserl and Heidegger, and engaged with Brechtian theater.
  • Collectivism: He consistently worked with others (his brother Krimou as cinematographer, friends as actors) and maintained an open‑door policy for fellow activists.
  • Risk‑taking: He filmed The Adoption despite school warnings; he used a hidden camera to record the trial of poet Abdellatif Laâbi.
  • Persistence: Even when About Some Meaningless Events stalled, he kept trying to finish it for decades.

His actions—joining the Communist Party, protesting, making politically charged student films—reveal a filmmaker who placed social responsibility above career safety.

Relationships

Key relationships include:

  • Abdelkrim Derkaoui (brother): His brother gave him the proverb “Stay quiet if what you want to say isn’t as beautiful as silence.” Krimou served as cinematographer on several projects and was a constant collaborator.
  • Abdelkader Lagtaa: A fellow Moroccan student and poet, Lagtaa shared the same activist ideals and later co‑directed La femme rurale. The two studied together, drank vodka, and debated cinema and politics.
  • Kazimierz Karabasz: The Polish documentary mentor who taught Derkaoui to approach subjects with care and to expose unjust systems.
  • Khadija Nour Douja: His wife, whom he married in 1965 after a transatlantic romance; she appears as a grounding figure in his narrative.
  • The Moroccan Communist Party and UNEM: These networks gave him ideological direction and a base for resistance.

Key Decisions and Consequences

  1. Leaving IDHEC: He chose to abandon the prestigious Paris school because it did not train filmmakers. This led him to Łódź, which provided hands‑on 35mm filmmaking and exposure to world cinema.
  2. Staying in Poland after graduation: Like many Third World students, he clung to the school because returning without a feature diploma was risky. This gave him time to develop his craft but also meant he was caught in Poland’s deteriorating attitude toward foreigners.
  3. Returning to Morocco in 1973: He trusted Ziani’s promise of protection. The consequence was partial freedom to make About Some Meaningless Events but also state surveillance and eventual censorship of his later works.
  4. Filming the Laâbi trial: He secretly preserved reels as historical documents, but later lost them during a move—a metaphor for the fragility of oppositional memory.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Derkaoui’s story weaves through several major themes of the book:

  • Cold War internationalism and educational exchange: He represents the scholarship student who benefited from Eastern Bloc training but also faced ideological constraints.
  • Decolonization and Third Cinema: His films aim to decolonize the gaze by focusing on real Moroccan lives (rural women, orphans, musicians).
  • Race, racialization, and the myth of race‑blind Eastern Europe: The episode of The Adoption—where the school feared a racist interpretation—reveals how Polish society struggled with racial difference even as the state promoted internationalism.
  • Memory, erasure, and archival recovery: Most of Derkaoui’s works are lost or banned; the book’s recovery of his story is itself an act against erasure.
  • Hope and solidarity across boundaries: Despite a lifetime of obstacles, Derkaoui never stopped trying to make his film. The book’s title—borrowed from Lagtaa’s poem—echoes his unbroken will.

Five Book‑Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why did Mostafa Derkaoui leave IDHEC in Paris after only a few months?
He felt that IDHEC primarily trained critics, not filmmakers, and he wanted to make films. He also missed his future wife, Douja, who was in Casablanca.

2. What was the controversy surrounding Derkaoui’s student short The Adoption?
The school feared the film would convey a racist image of Poland because the central character was a biracial child. Derkaoui was told to proceed carefully; in the end, the film actually inspired the actors to adopt the girl.

3. How did Derkaoui’s philosophy studies influence his filmmaking style?
He was influenced by phenomenology (Heidegger, Husserl), which led him to want a cinema that “circulates like a rhizome”—using close‑ups and continuous movement to stay close to the subjects’ lived experience, avoiding static shots.

4. What happened when Derkaoui returned to Morocco in 1973?
He was promised protection by CCM director Ziani and began preparing About Some Meaningless Events. He also filmed newsreels for CCM, including footage of King Hassan II and the trial of Abdellatif Laâbi, but those reels were later lost.

5. Why does the book describe Derkaoui’s student works as a “potential cinema”?
Because upon returning to Morocco, most of his works were banned, seized, or disappeared due to state censorship. The films that survive only as descriptions or stills represent a promising but unrealized path for Moroccan cinema.

Summary

Mostafa Derkaoui’s character in Hope Is of a Different Color is both a real person and a symbol of the hope that cinema can change society—even when that hope is deferred, censored, or archived in fragments. His journey from Łódź to Casablanca, from The Adoption to the unfinished About Some Meaningless Events, illustrates the book’s core argument: that the student films of Global South filmmakers at Eastern European schools constitute a vital, suppressed alternative to mainstream national cinemas. Derkaoui’s persistence, his communal approach, and his belief in a cinema that “expresses a will to say something” make him a compelling figure for anyone interested in decolonial film history.