On 11 June 1986, one day after Morocco wrote football world cup history by scoring a surprising victory over Portugal, government official Daoud is ordered to secure a bridge outside Casablanca that sits between two hostile communities over an empty highway. Here, he is to await the expected but by no means certain visit of King Hassan II. Encounters with government supporters and the families of political prisoners; the mysterious appearance of a foreign woman and a Berber, as well as the story of a football crazy boy all prove to be a bit much for Daoud. Ever since the bloody ‘bread riots’ five years earlier, he has felt paralysed. But the euphoria and the hope he encounters here help to lift his mood. The Moroccan team’s success unleashes a new self-confidence and lust for life that transcends the surreal shadow of the monarchy.

Halima lives on Morocco’s coast and makes a living by gathering and selling mussels. An unknown phone call brings her long-buried past back to light. After her husband passed away, Halima stayed alone in their old house in the mountains. The land is undergoing drastic changes, leaving her home, livelihood and sense of belonging all precarious. Grief, hardship and displacement follow one after another. Though fate knocks her down time and again, she never surrenders.A former photojournalist, the director captures this one-woman battle with stark cinematography. Free from grand outcries, the film lays bare her everyday resilience. Amid constant flux and loss, this woman stands firm, striving to carve out her own place in the world.