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Releasing on Dec 6, 2024
- 2024
- Indican Pictures
- 1 h 34 m
- 2024
- Indican Pictures
- 1 h 34 m
Summary A father and son in the suburbs of Casablanca get by on petty crimes for a local mob. When a kidnapping goes wrong, they must find a way to dispose of the body.
Directed By: Kamal Lazraq
Written By: Kamal Lazraq
- 2024
- Indican Pictures
- 1 h 34 m
- 2024
- Indican Pictures
- 1 h 34 m
Hounds
58
User Score
User reviews are not available yet
tbd
Summary A father and son in the suburbs of Casablanca get by on petty crimes for a local mob. When a kidnapping goes wrong, they must find a way to dispose of the body.
Directed By: Kamal Lazraq
Written By: Kamal Lazraq
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 7 Critic Reviews
58
43% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
57% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 7 Critic Reviews
58
43% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
57% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
A grim thrill rounded off with a chilling last shot.
As its central crisis deepens and darkens, Lazraq’s script keeps teasing a gear-shift into mordant farce to which it never quite commits, leaving both the characters and the drama a bit stymied. Still, this is a notably punchy debut, both visceral and confidently cavalier in its depiction of everyday underworld brutality, with a sharp, streetlit sense of place.
The circle of life and death may be warped and buckled in Hounds, but nobody can stop it turning.
There are moments when the film uneasily skirts the line between genre conventions and documentary realism, but the portrait it paints of Casablanca’s underbelly remains credible and bleak.
All creatures great and small are fighting for their lives in this blasted landscape and, though the tension often flags, the actors, many of them non-professional, give consistently good face, especially Masstouri, who resembles a leathery, bushy-haired John Garfield.
By Charlotte O'Sullivan
FULL REVIEW
The film is perhaps flawed by its ending, which loses a bit of narrative momentum and insists too strenuously on the metaphorical properties, but there is a tang of real evil in the story’s chaos and its final image.
As a piece of compelling and coherent narrative filmmaking, Hounds is unfortunately a fun beginning, a silly ending and with a mid-section that’s missing in action.
User Reviews
tbd
Production Company
Barney Production,
Mont Fleuri Production,
Beluga Tree,
Fonds d'aide à la Production Cinématographiqu,
L'Aide aux Cinémas du Monde,
Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC),
Institut Français,
Red Sea Film Festival Foundation,
Tax Shelter du Gouvernement Fédéral Belge,
Caviar Film Financing,
Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles,
Fondation GAN pour le Cinéma,
Doha Film Institute,
Fonds Images de la Francophonie,
AFAC - The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture,
Cinémage 17,
Institut Français du Maroc,
Agence Nationale de Gestion des Oeuvres Audiovisuelles (ANGOA)
Release Date Dec 6, 2024
Duration 1 h 34 m
Awards
Cannes Film Festival
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
Pingyao International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
Stockholm Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations