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La Isla

Ibrahim, a Moroccan soldier, is sent to a deserted island off the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. His orders are to monitor the movements of drug smugglers and illegal immigrants, but--a pawn in a larger game--he is being used by his superiors for murkier aims. Ibrahim finds a Sub-Saharan man, Mamadou, washed up on the beach. While the unlikely pair tries to survive on the small, stony island, they inadvertently trigger a diplomatic incident that crescendos into a regional military crisis. Based on actual events.

  • Ahmed Boulane
    Director
    Ali, Rabea et les autres, The Satanic Angels, The Return of the Son
  • Ahmed Boulane
    Writer
    Ali, Rabea et les autres, The Satanic Angels, The Return of the Son
  • Ahmed Boulane
    Producer
    Ali, Rabea et les autres, The Satanic Angels, The Return of the Son
  • Abdellah Ferkous
    Key Cast
  • Issa N'diaye
    Key Cast
  • Rosario Pardo
    Key Cast
  • Miguel Hermoso
    Key Cast
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    La Isla de Perejil
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 22 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    November 1, 2015
  • Production Budget:
    950,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Morocco
  • Country of Filming:
    Morocco, Spain
  • Language:
    Arabic, French, Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital Alexa
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35 : 1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • 12th European Film Festival
    Seville, Spain
    France
    November 12, 2015
    French premiere
  • 15th Marrakech International Film Festival
    Marrakech, Morocco
    December 8, 2015
    Moroccan premiere
  • 15th Tiburon International Film Festival
    Tiburon, California USA
    April 10, 2016
    North American premiere
  • Helsinki African Film Festival
    Helsinki
    Finland
    May 13, 2016
    Finnish premiere
    Jury Prize
  • The Roxbury International Film Festival
    Roxbury, Massachusetts
    United States
    June 20, 2016
    New England premiere
  • 37th Durban International Film Festival
    Durban
    South Africa
    June 18, 2016
    South African premiere
  • La Semaine du Film Espagnol
    Paris
    France
    June 16, 2016
    French premiere
  • Beijing International Film Festival
    Beijing
    China
    Chinese premiere
  • "Euro Fest" European International Film Festival
    St. Petersburg
    Russian Federation
    Russian premiere
  • 14th Resistance International Film Festival
    Tehran
    Iran, Islamic Republic of
    September 24, 2016
    Iranian premiere
  • 7th Festival Internațional de Film Comedy Cluj
    Cluj Napoca
    Romania
    October 18, 2016
    Romanian premiere
  • Film Africa
    London
    United Kingdom
    October 30, 2016
    British premiere
  • 3rd Phnom Penh International Film Festival
    Phnom Penh
    Cambodia
    Cambodian
  • 1st Islamic Unity International Film Festival
    Tehran
    Iran, Islamic Republic of
  • 8th Cordoba International Film Festival
    Monteria, Cordoba
Director Biography - Ahmed Boulane

Born in Salé, Morocco, in 1956. From 1974 to 1979, actor with the Moroccan National Theater Company and the national troupe of Radio Télévision Marocain in Rabat. From 1979 onwards, a wide and varied film experience, both in cinema and television, as actor, casting director, and1st assistant director in more than fifty international productions.
In 1997, Ahmed Boulane founded his production company, Boulane O’Bryne Production, to produce and direct his own films.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Historically, Perejil (for the Spanish) or Leila (for the Moroccans), the small, rocky island sitting only two hundred fifty meters off of the Moroccan Mediterranean coast, has had several different flags raised over it. The Moroccans, Spanish, Portuguese and even the English have all declared their sovereignty over this minuscule piece of land. And despite its small size, 480 meters by 480 meters, the jurisdiction of the tiny island was the inciting incident in 2002 of an armed conflict between the two countries sitting on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar: Morocco and Spain.

Outside several new reports, none of which attracted much attention from the general public, there has been no fictional account of this incident. In the film « La Isla de Perejil » the story is told from the perspective of a simple solider, Ibrahim, sent to Perejil/Leila by the Moroccan military to ostensibly monitor illegal immigration and drug smuggling in the Mediterranean. Without any pretentions to be a faithful historical account, the sarcasm with which the story is told is simply a reflection of the absurd dimensions the reality eventually took on: a handful of Moroccan naval cadets sent to a « big rock » triggered the Spanish military invasion, Operation Romeo-Sierra, and the mediation of the United States.

Ahmed Boulane