Known for Directing
Nabil Ayouch (born 1 April 1969) is a Franco-Moroccan television and film director, producer, and writer. His films have screened at international film festivals including the Cannes Film Festival and Montreal World Film Festival. Ayouch was born in 1969 in Paris, to a Moroccan father, Noureddine Ayouch and a French mother of Tunisian-Jewish descent. His brother is fellow director Hicham Ayouch. After his parents' divorce, he spent a large part of his childhood in the suburb of Sarcelles, visiting Casablanca in the summers. Ayouch cites discovering international cinema at the local cultural center, Forum des Cholettes, as inspiring his filmmaking career. Ayouch started his career as a scriptwriter and director with the advertising agency Euro-RSCG. In 1992, he directed Les Pierres bleues du désert, a first short film with Jamel Debbouze which tells the history of a young man convinced that there are large blue stones in the desert. In 1993, Ayourch ended up settling in Casablanca, where he directed two short films, Hertzienne Connexion (1993) and Vendeur de silence (1994), for which he received international recognition. In 1997, Ayouch directed his first feature film Mektoub, which represented Morocco at the Oscars. He also directed the feature films Une Minute de soleil en moins (2003) and Whatever Lola Wants (2008), produced by Pathé. In 1999, Ayouch created a production company called Ali n'Productions to aid aspiring young directors in establishing their careers. He won the Ecumenical Award in 2000 in the Montreal World Film Festival for his film Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets. Ayouch is set to produce the French-Moroccan thriller film Mirages. Ayouch's 2012 film Horses of God is based on Mahi Binebine’s novel The Stars of Sidi Moumen. In Horses of God, Ayouch explores the radicalization that can occur from poverty and extreme machismo, alluding to the 2003 Casablanca bombings. The film competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. It was also Morocco's submission for the 85th Academy Awards (held in February 2013). In 2021, Ayouch's film Casablanca Beats was selected for the 74th Cannes Film Festival competition. In February 2025, Ayouch joined the competition jury at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, presided over by Todd Haynes. Ayouch is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures, the Académie des Césars, and the Arab Film Academy. Ayouch's film Much Loved, which takes place in Marrakesh, caused a stir due to its unsimulated sex scenes especially the scene where Loubna Abidar performed an unsimulated fellatio on a man. The movie was ultimately banned in Morocco. Ayouch works and lives in Casablanca. He is married to fellow Moroccan filmmaker and actress Maryam Touzani. Source: Article "Nabil Ayouch" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Born
April 1, 1969 (age 57)
Birthplace
Paris, France
Filmography
45 films, 4 shows


Everybody Loves Touda
2024 · 1h 42m
country: Belgium
Touda is a Sheikha, a traditional Moroccan singer. Performing in the bars of her provincial town under the gaze of men, she plans to leave for the lights of Casablanca in search of recognition and to ensure a better future for her deaf-mute son.


Casablanca Beats
2021 · 1h 41m
country: France
When a rapper-turned-teacher brings hip-hop to a community center in an impoverished area of Casablanca, his tough methods spark an explosion of talent.


Razzia
2017 · 1h 49m
country: Morocco
Morocco, from the past to the present. Five people who are connected to each other – Abdallah, Salima, Joe, Hakim, and Inès – without realizing it. Different faces, different struggles, but one same breath. One city, Casablanca as a fragment of reality, as the myth of a film entirely shot in Hollywood studios, which reality has come back to claim.


Much Loved
2015 · 1h 48m
country: France
A social drama about four marginalized prostitutes in Marrakech and their complex relations with their families and society at large.


Horses of God
2013 · 1h 55m
country: France
The film follows two brothers over the course of a decade. While they begin as kids in search of thrills in the sprawling slums of Morocco’s Sidi Moumen, we witness their gradual, and ultimately shocking, radicalisation.


My Land
2011 · 1h 40m
country: Unknown
"My land" gives voice to old Palestinian refugees who fled in 1948 without ever returning to their land, and who have been living in camps in Lebanon for more than 60 years.


Whatever Lola Wants
2007 · 1h 55m
country: France
A Brooklyn postal worker follows her Egyptian boyfriend to Cairo where she takes belly-dancing lessons from a legendary but disgraced Egyptian dancer.


A Minute of Sun Less
2003 · 1h 40m
country: France
Kamel Raoui, a young police inspector in Tanger, investigates the murder of drug-dealer Hakim Tahiri. The victim's mistress Touria, just living for her fatally-ill younger brother Pipo, is considered the main suspect, so Kamel learns more and more about their hard life circumstances. During the observation, the sexually-confused Kamel falls in love with the young woman, but realizes the imminence for Touria and Pipo too late.


Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets
2001 · 1h 39m
country: Belgium
Ali, Kwita, Omar and Boubker are street kids. The daily dose of glue sniffing represents their only escape from reality. Since they left Dib and his gang, they have been living on the portside of Casablanca. They live in constant fear of Dib's revenge. Ali wants to become a sailor - when he was living with his mother, a prostitute, he used to listen to a fairy tale about the sailor who discovered the miracle island with two suns. Instead of finding his island in the dream, Ali and his friends are confronted with Dib's gang. Matters are getting serious.


Mektoub
1997 · 1h 30m
country: France
A young woman attending a conference in Tangier with her husband is kidnapped and raped, but rebuilds her relationship with her husband on a trip to the south of Morocco.
Vendeur de silence
Vendeur de silence
1994
country: France


Hertzienne Connexion
1993
country: Morocco
The man reads his newspaper on a toilet bowl. The woman presents the newspaper behind a television. In fact, he's a prisoner, she's a spy. But what terrible secret is he hiding?


The Blue Stones of the Desert
1992 · 21m
country: France
In a remote village in Morocco, Najib, 14 years old, is convinced that there are blue stones in the desert, whose vision has haunted him for years. Taken for a madman by his friends, he also faces the incomprehension of his family. Only the old sheikh believes in his story. One day, the council meets to decide on his case.