Inside Paul Bowles, and his relation with some of The Moroccan writers and friends. Featuring Paul Bowles, Mohamed Choukri, Mohamed Mrabet, Abdelwahaid Boulaich, Mohammed Temsamani...

Under the benevolent shadow of Jean Genet, buried in Morocco,  this film is a dialogue between the living and the dead, an invitation to bring those realms together, between silent humanist revolt and poetic elegy. A family takes loving care of a white tomb, in a cemetery with a view of the sea. We are in Larache, south of Tangier, where Jean Genet lived the last ten years of his life.  Today, the writer is finally home, among his own. And for the locals of the city, he is a legend.Few of them actually knew him. Still fewer have read him. Most all have reinvented him for themselves. Everyone has their own story to tell. But they all agree on onething: “Jon Joney” valued them. He was on their side. Thesesimple, poor, quite frankly invisible individuals form the voiceless and futureless people of Morocco. Living incarnations of the characters in hiswork, they now keep watch over his grave.

"A collaboration with writer Lucy Sante made in Tangier, Morocco, a city where neither of us had ever been. En route from the airport to the city center, we found ourselves amazed by the landscape outside of the car windows; a massive construction project under way in all directions. While not in itself unusual, we were by struck dumb by the epic scale and seemingly incomprehensible plan of the development and were drawn to return together to this puzzling zone".

In the mid-1950s and beyond, Tangier became a haven for artists, poets, and intellectuals. Drawn by the influence of Paul Bowles, members of the Beat Generation flocked to this northern Moroccan city, seeking inspiration, a space to complete their creative endeavors, and a taste of the Moroccan dream. Despite the significant contributions of Moroccan artists and intellectuals to this cultural milieu, Western narratives often marginalized their presence, reducing them to mere shadows or omitting them altogether. This film serves as a tribute to this profound intersection of dreams and dislocated realities.