Beneath a Mother's Feet
A single mother in Morocco, trapped in a mundane existence, confronts her dreams and fears, leading to the agonising decision to forsake all she knows, even her children.
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Elias SuhailDirector
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Elias SuhailWriter
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Arij Al-SoltanProducerBaghdad Central, Korean Lovers in Baghdad, Safia, Tabbouleh & Pie
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Nisrine AdamKey Cast"Wedad"
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Project Type:Short
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Genres:Drama, Thriller, Surrealism, Cinema Verité
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Runtime:15 minutes 31 seconds
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Completion Date:September 22, 2023
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Production Budget:55,000 GBP
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Country of Origin:United Kingdom
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Country of Filming:Morocco
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Language:Arabic
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Shooting Format:Sony Venice
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Aspect Ratio:2.39:1
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
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Canadian Cinematography Awards (CCA)Toronto
Canada
August 19, 2023
Winner: Film of the Month; Best Cinematography; Best Director; Best Original Score; Best Producer; Best Editing -
European Cinematography Awards (ECA)Amsterdam
Netherlands
September 6, 2023
Winner: Best Short Film -
Red Movie AwardsReims
France
September 24, 2023
Winner: Best Actress -
Evolution Mallorca International Film FestivalPalma de Mallorca
Spain
October 18, 2023
European Premiere
Special Mention -
The Bay International Film FestivalMorecambe
United Kingdom
October 28, 2023
Winner: Best Editing -
SHORT to the PointBucharest
Romania
October 31, 2023
Winner: Best Narrative; Best Leading Actress, Best Cinematography -
Tangier Film FestivalTangier
Morocco
November 15, 2023
Morocco Premiere
Grand Prize: Best Fiction Short ("The Golden Grotto" Award) -
Midnight Soul Film FestivalHelsingborg
Sweden
November 28, 2023
Sweden Premiere
Honourable Mention -
IndieCork Film Festival (BAFTA Qualifying)Cork
Ireland
December 16, 2023
Ireland Premiere
Official Selection -
Rome Prisma Independent Film AwardsRome
Italy
January 6, 2024
Winner: Best Editing; Best Sound Design -
Athens International Monthly Art Film FestivalAthens
Greece
January 28, 2024
Winner: Best Short Film -
Lift-Off Season Awards 2023Pinewood Studios
United Kingdom
February 24, 2024
Winner: Best First-Time Filmmaker; Winner: Audience Choice Award -
Hastings Rocks International Film FestivalHastings
United Kingdom
Winner: Best Cinematography
Distribution Information
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MAD SolutionsSales AgentCountry: EgyptRights: All Rights
Elias Suhail is a British-Moroccan writer and filmmaker whose works are interested in narratives which compel a deeper questioning of our ethical and moral frameworks.
His work spans creative non-fiction, short fiction, theatre and film.
He has contributed several pieces to the New Statesman, had his work featured on BBC Sounds as part of the Margins to Mainstream with Michael Sheen podcast series, as well as performed to live audiences.
Elias’s directorial debut, Beneath a Mother’s Feet, completed in 2023, has won numerous awards globally, including the Golden Cave Award for Best Fiction Short at the Tangier Film Festival, as well as Best First-Time Filmmaker and the Audience Choice Award at the Lift-Off Season Awards 2023.
As a young woman in her native Morocco, my mother found herself stuck: A divorcee and single mother to two young children, she struggled to envision a future for herself. In the midst of her emotional turmoil, my mother took a fateful step away from her life, leaving behind everything she had known, including her young children.
It is a story that preceded my coming into this world and yet its significance has rippled through time, impacting lives in direct and indirect ways, to the present day.
Beneath a Mother's Feet is a reconstruction of the thirty-six hours leading up to this moment of departure, unearthing the dense layers of emotions my mother undoubtedly experienced.
Here I am, more than 50 years after these events, representing these events on film using a blend of my mother's personal testimony and my own memories of the long Summers spent in Morocco during my childhood, as a way of making the incoherent past somehow coherent, as a tool to explore internal realities and truth, to hopefully move towards healing and reconciliation.
It is a tale of the boundaries of maternal ambivalence and self-discovery built with scraps of memory and imagination.
As the director, my aim is to not just tell a story, but to invite audiences on a reflective journey of their own. It is a tribute to my mother and all single mothers in the world, but also a canvas for viewers to see, feel, and perhaps find fragments of their own stories.