Autobiographically inspired, Marocain immerses us in the antagonistic yet loving relationship between a dying mother and her adult daughter who cares for her. Their conversations circle around memories of the husband and father - a Foreign Legionnaire who years back disappeared to Morocco – and of the country itself. The intimate dialogue, set within a small flat, is punctuated by vivid scenes of the North African country, which both women once visited in search of the father and to follow a longing, only to find – and now recall – very different things.

West Germany 1989, 86 mins, with English subtitles.
Written, directed and filmed by Elfi Mikesch.

Elfi Mikesch revisited the subject of the Legionnaire Father more than 20 years later in her film Fieber (2014), taking a completely different approach. Fever will be shown on 27 May 2026, as part of the Goethe-Kino.

More about the film

Marocain

Based on motifs from Maria Isabel Barrenos, Maria Teresa Hortas and Maria Velho da Costa’s New Portuguese Letters (aka Three Marias).

Elfi Mikesch: “Sometimes I think she isn’t my daughter at all …” Thus begins a conversation between the mother, now in her twilight years, and her daughter. Throughout their lives, the mother and daughter have been at odds. As if they were secret mortal enemies. In this story, the father remains a phantom, the eternal soldier, a Foreign Legionnaire. An angel of death. Stationed from one battlefield to the next, he had ceased to be a civilian. For the mother, he became a legend. Through her reticence, she tries to preserve the human face of the father, whilst the daughter questions her mother’s solidarity. Mother and daughter experience memories and perceptions as contradictory fragments. The mother had lived in Morocco for several years. Years later, the daughter visits the country as a tourist. For both, it is a land of longing, of the past, of strangeness, but for the mother, Morocco was her true life. She had a lover there. A very young Moroccan. (Source: Elfi Mikesch)

West Germany 1989, 86 mins, colour, digital (original format: 16mm), 86 mins, with English subtitles.
Written, directed by Elfi Mikesch, and filmed by Elfi Mikesch, camera assistant: Irene v. Alberti, lighting: Stefan Breitel, assistant director and script: Britta Pohland, production design: Uta Reichardt, make-up: Andreas Hintz, editing: Britta Pohland, editing consultant: Heide Breitel, sound: Frieder Schlaich, mixing: Stephan Konken, production manager in Morocco: Irene v. Alberti, production: Hyäne Film I/II, on behalf of ZDF/Kleines Fernsehspiel, editor: Annedore von Donop, premiere: February 1989, Berlin International Film Festival, International Forum of Young Cinema.
With Eva Lehmann, Traute Hoess, Abdelhadi el Aidi, Fathma Zohra, Aicha Bent Hassan, Hannan Bent Aicha, Mohammed Abou Ahmed, M. Blanche, Ahamed Sharaf and others.