Yassine El Idrissi’s drama “Halima” has entered the Golden Goblet Awards Main Competition at the 28th Shanghai International Film Festival, where it celebrated its world premiere ahead of a press conference.

The selection marks Morocco’s return to SIFF’s premier category after a 27-year gap – the last Moroccan film to compete at that level was Saad Chraibi’s “Women … and Women” (“Femmes … et Femmes”), a contender at the festival’s 4th edition in 1999.

The film follows Halima, an elderly woman living quietly by the sea whose routine is upended by an unexpected phone call, compelling her to confront a past she has long suppressed – one that includes involvement in the illegal cannabis trade. The narrative shifts between the present and memories from five years earlier.

El Idrissi, who also produced and wrote the film, traced its origins to his years working as a photojournalist across Morocco. “Before I started working in cinema many years ago, I was a photojournalist, and that allowed me to travel across Morocco and meet all kinds of people,” he said. “Among them were many individuals on the margins of society, just like our protagonist Halima.”

Rejecting heavy visual effects, El Idrissi built the film’s texture through natural lighting and ambient sound, including a guitar piece drawn from a well-known Moroccan song about poverty and hardship in the Rif Mountains region – used with the original singer’s permission.

The character of Halima is a composite drawn from many people he met during his journalism years, including echoes of his own grandmother, who shared the name. “I want to make a film where I show the women I know, the strong Moroccan women who are fighting the hardship of life,” he said.

El Idrissi reserved particular praise for lead actor Khadija – a Moroccan performer with an extensive career in smaller roles who had never previously headlined a feature. He traveled to her city with lead actor Rabii El Fakih, renting a house near hers and conducting three days of auditions before making his decision. “She carried the film and I’m really proud of her, I’m proud of discovering her and of her discovering me,” he said.

El Fakih described the film as distinctive within the Moroccan context. “The subject matter of this film is not common in Morocco, but I personally find it very compelling,” he said. “It is rich in emotion and conveys a strong sense of positive energy.”

El Idrissi also reflected on the structural constraints facing Moroccan cinema, noting that the country produces around 26 films per year – a figure he considers well short of its potential, given Morocco’s position as a cultural bridge between Africa and Europe.

This year’s Golden Goblet competition features 49 films from 34 countries and regions. For the first time, all entries in both the main competition and documentary categories are world premieres.