The Scene Drift

There is a deliberate, piercing psychological precision at the heart of Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi’s cinema that manufactured studio posturing cannot touch. Following the international acclaim of her striking debut Sofia, the Moroccan auteur returns with Behind the Palm Trees, commanding the carpet at the 22nd Marrakech International Film Festival with a drama constructed around raw human tension and meticulous performance.

Amidst the energy of the red carpet, Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi spoke with The Scene Drift about why the shoot lives or dies in the audition room, how she navigates vastly contrasting actor methods, and the craft of granting artists true creative liberty on set.

          

The Art of Casting and Building Trust on Set

For Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi, the real labor of filmmaking begins long before the camera rolls. When addressing how she guided such nuanced performances out of her ensemble, she insists that the battle is won during pre-production.

"For me, the directing of the actors is really the work of casting," Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi explains. "It’s very, very important. It took a long time to cast this film, but once you find the right actors, the work on set becomes fluid. It flows naturally."

Rather than forcing her performers into a rigid, uniform mold during production, the director views her primary duty as discovering performers whose natural essence mirrors the emotional truth of the narrative, allowing genuine authenticity to translate effortlessly onto the screen.

Two Actors, Two Opposite Worlds: Directing Selma and Driss

Working with a diverse cast demands supreme directorial adaptability, and Behind the Palm Trees pushed that versatility to the forefront. When guiding her key performers, Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi discovered that each required a radically distinctive creative language.

"With Nadia, who plays Selma, it was a lot of talking," Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi notes. "We spent a great deal of time analyzing the script, exploring the psychological background of the character, digging deep into who she was, and understanding her interior motives before rolling."

Yet while Nadia thrived on verbal excavation and text analysis, co-star Driss sought the exact reverse: complete cinematic stillness and unspoken trust.

"With Driss, it was totally different," she reveals. "He operates on instinct and interiority. We barely talked about the role at all. With him, my job was to create an environment of security. Once he feels completely safe, you just give him the space and the freedom to express the character in his own way."

By shifting her approach to accommodate both intellectual breakdown and raw instinct, Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi demonstrates why she remains one of contemporary cinema's most insightful directing talents.

Behind the Palm Trees premiered at the 22nd Marrakech International Film Festival.