Cinema. In “Calle Málaga,” Maryam Touzani celebrates life and breaks the taboo around ageing

“This film was born out of pain and loss — the loss of my mother. That’s when I began writing, because I needed to keep her close to me, to keep her memory alive.”

This is how Maryam Touzani, director of Calle Málaga, describes the deeply personal origins of her latest film. Speaking to Médias24, she explained how grief became the starting point for a story that could only take shape through fiction.

Those memories led her back to Tangier — her hometown, and her mother’s — allowing her, through writing, to reconnect with her past. It became an inward journey, one that helped her preserve a fragile bond with the city, a bond she struggled to maintain after her mother’s passing.

Through the character of Maria Angeles, a 79-year-old woman fighting to hold on to her home and the memories of a lifetime, Touzani sets out to challenge the taboo surrounding ageing. For her, life ends only with the final breath: growing older is not an ending. “As long as the heart beats and we breathe, we can still find fulfilment and live fully.”

“I think we too often see older people as if their lives were behind them,” she says. “But life is a constant rebirth. As we age, we remain the person we have always been. Only the exterior changes — and even that is beautiful. To see a body grow old is, to me, a privilege: it bears the marks of a life lived. It means we have had the chance to live.” For Touzani, ageing is not decline, but a form of continual renewal.

She fully embraces this perspective, openly seeking to break the taboo around sensuality and sexuality in later life, notably through scenes of nudity. “I wanted to film these ageing bodies with tenderness and beauty, to honour the traces of what they have lived through — always with respect for my actors, and with love for what they bring to the screen.”

The football scenes were another distinctive part of the shoot, particularly those involving Carmen Maura, when the entire street seems to spill into her home. These moments already carried a vibrant energy in the writing, but that energy was amplified on set by the vitality of the actors, the neighbourhood, and the shared sense of joy. “At some point, you almost forget you’re filming — you’re just living. And because it was something shared, something collective, it felt truly special.”

Beyond Borders

Touzani’s third feature film was selected to represent Morocco at the Oscars, in the Best International Feature category for the 2026 edition — a source of great pride for the filmmaker. Through Calle Málaga, she sought to carry a vision of Morocco that reflects what she sees as its essence: a land of tolerance and coexistence, where people like Maria Angeles found refuge long ago and chose to stay.

After premiering at the Venice International Film Festival, the film gained fresh momentum and is set for release in Moroccan cinemas on April 22, 2026.

Asked about what comes next, Touzani said she is currently writing and considers herself fortunate to share both her life and her work with her partner and producer, Nabil Ayouch. “We share the same passion. It’s part of our life. And I’m always struck by how precious it is to have someone like Nabil — someone to share both life and the journey with. To live and experience all of this together is something truly beautiful.”

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