This remarkably observant documentary film, THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES, begins 
with the truism that every family has 
secrets, but when young Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir agrees to help her parents move out of the Casablanca house they’d lived in throughout her life, she realizes that her family’s mysteries are vast. Why do her parents have only one picture of Asmae during childhood? And why is she certain that the girl in the picture isn’t her at all? What other stories her 
family has told are untrue? To pry open the lies, El Moudir and her father build a handmade set that recreates their neighborhood. In an atmosphere that balances the surreal and the all-too-real, she brings the whole family to the soundstage where the miniature town is built and begins to ask questions, unraveling the story, letting her family members talk, asking probing questions. Slowly, she begins to interrogate the tales that her mother, 
father and grandmother have told all her life about their home and their country, starting to understand the layers of deception and intentional forgetting that have shaped her life. Director, writer, granddaughter, and daughter Asmae El Moudir (The Postcard) joins us for a conversation on the personal reasons for making a film about her family, her determination to continue the project for more than 10 years, utilizing the artistic and cinematic skills she was mastering over the course of making the film, the recognition the film has received and the impact that The Mother of All Lies has had on her family.
Download MP3 Podcast | Open Player in New Window
For more go to: outsiderpictures.us/the-mother-of-all-lies
WINNER OF BEST DIRECTOR, CANNES – UN CERTAIN REGARD
WINNER OF 11 INTERNATIONAL AWARDS
MOROCCO’S OFFICIAL ENTRY FOR ACADEMY AWARDS
About the filmmaker – Asmae El Moudir (born in 1990 in Salé) is a Moroccan film director, screenwriter and producer. She studied at La Fémis in Paris and holds a master’s degree in production from the Superior Institute of Information and Communication in Rabat and a bachelor’s degree in documentary cinema from the Abdelmalek Essaâdi University in Tetouan. She also graduated in 2010 from the Moroccan Film Academy in Film studies (ISCA). Asmae has directed documentaries for SNRT, Al Jazeera Documentary, BBC and Al Araby TV. She has won important national and international awards and her films have been screened in festivals worldwide and presented in co-production markets. After making a number of short films, Asmae completed her first feature documentary, THE POSTCARD, in 2020. THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES is her second feature film. Select Filmography: THE COLORS OF SILENCE (2012, Nadacom Production, 25′) THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY (2013, La Fémis, 13’) (the director’s most awarded short film) ROUGH CUT (2015, Insightfilms, 25′) THE POSTCARD (2020, Aljazeera Production, 83’/53’ TV) THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES (2023, Insightfilms, 97’).
SOCIAL MEDIA
facebook.com/outsiderpictures
instagram.com/outsiderpictures
instagram.com/laemmletheatres
instagram.com/asmae_el_moudir
“The Mother of All Lies is an astonishing work whose maturity comes from El Moudir’s wide-eyed approach to her family history…” – Variety
“A staggering work of documentary filmmaking, Asmae El Moudir recreates
her personal history and a tragic chapter in Morocco’s history with her family as witness.” – Autostraddle
“Riveting, inventive!” – Indiewire
“This is an astounding film… A commitment of an extraordinary level.” – Wade Major, FilmWeek (KPCC – NPR Los Angeles)
“Inventive and moving.” – Hollywood Reporter
“The delicate mix of handmade replicas and oral testimony brilliantly evokes the personal and collective trauma that stem from Morocco’s “Years of Lead” — a period of state brutality under Hassan II’s dictatorial rule.” – Phuong Le, Guardian