DUBAI FILM FESTIVAL - WWW: WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD

This Moroccan film premiered at the Venice Film Fest last September and despite its off-putting title, I was surprised at how much I liked it. The second feature film from director Faouzi Bensaidi, it follows the intertwining lives of four characters in contemporary Casablanca: a female traffic cop, a hit man, a sometimes prostitute and an Internet-savvy teenager.

Surprisingly, all of his cinematic nods to other films (Kill Bill, Amelie, Chung King Express) actually made me appreciate his talent more, as opposed to convince me of his lack of inspiration. Like a good hip-hop song, it felt like a new story built on layers of tradition.

I especially loved the performance of Nezha Rahil who is so silly and cute as she performs a her love-induced traffic control dance on a raised platform in the middle of a roundabout that it becomes nearly impossible to resist her charms.

Here's a fairly old, but good review of it from Variety.