17 May

19:30

OT301

Overtoom 301, Amsterdam

A screening of the documentary exploring the complex relationship between writer Paul Bowles and storyteller Muhammed Mrabet, followed by a Q&A with director Nordin Lasfar.

Ventilator Cinema: Mohammed & Paul – Once Upon a Time in Tangier

More info & tickets

A screening of the documentary Mohammed & Paul – Once Upon a Time in Tangier, followed by a Q&A with director Nordin Lasfar, moderated by Nihal Rabbani.

Muhammed Mrabet is perhaps the only illiterate man in the world with fourteen books to his name. A master storyteller and one of the last representatives of the centuries-old Moroccan oral tradition of hikayat, Mrabet became the muse of the renowned American writer Paul Bowles during the second half of the twentieth century.

Bowles recorded Mrabet’s oral stories and translated them into English while living in Tangier, Morocco — a city that attracted many writers and artists associated with the Beat Generation. Tangier in this period became known for its atmosphere of creative freedom and experimentation. Yet this cultural openness also existed alongside colonial power structures, economic inequality, and racism, shaping the complex and sometimes uncomfortable relationship between Bowles and Mrabet.

Today, Mrabet lives a quiet and isolated life in a small alley in Tangier, often expressing bitterness toward those who, in his view, benefited from his stories without acknowledging their origins. Through his voice, we encounter an often unheard local perspective on a mythologized historical period. Now in his eighties, Mrabet reflects on his life and storytelling practice, weaving together fantasy and reality. The film combines archival recordings of his stories on cassette tapes with poetic and magical-realist imagery — including AI-generated scenes such as a giant fish and a watermelon containing a palace.

Director Nordin Lasfar grew up in the Netherlands in a household without books, as the child of illiterate immigrants. Literature became a gateway to another world for him, and his fascination with the work of Bowles eventually led him to the stories of Mrabet. In this documentary, Lasfar explores the complicated friendship between the two men while reflecting on authorship, translation, and cultural power.

The film connects to an ongoing contemporary debate: Who has the authority to tell a story, and under what conditions? Through Mrabet’s voice, the documentary revisits questions of representation, colonial history, and the politics of storytelling.

After the screening, the audience is invited to stay for a Q&A conversation with director Nordin Lasfar, moderated by Nihal Rabbani, exploring the film’s themes of storytelling, cultural ownership, and decolonial perspectives.

About the moderator:

Nihal Rabbani is a community curator, food activist and Founding Director of the Palestinian Film Festival Amsterdam (PFFA). She recently launched Culture Palestine, a project focused on amplifying artistic, culinary and conversational events initiated by the PFFA, with the aim of expanding their significance beyond Palestinian cinema.