Focus: Funny Business
Déserts (Deserts)
Faouzi Bensaïdi
2023 / DEU, BEL, FRA, MAR / 2h05 / Age: 16 (16)
Screening in collaboration with the FIFF
The illusion of a better life
Mehdi and Hamid, employees of a debt collection agency in Casablanca, travel through the villages of southern Morocco to collect debts from families who are often destitute. Their journey begins as a social comedy, characterised by the farcical situations caused by the clumsy duo, before veering off into a strange western, which reveals the economic violence inherent in their mission.
Language: Arabic
Subtitles: French
Starring: Fehd Benchemsi, Abdelhadi Talbi & Rabii Benjhaile
Funny Business
The VIFFF is dedicating its 2026 thematic focus to workplace comedies. From the Industrial Revolution to artificial intelligence, via the rise of office-based employment, the world of work has been constantly changing — with its dreams of progress as well as its disillusionments.
Combining satire of capitalism with a critique of power dynamics, this selection humorously explores the absurdities of our everyday working lives.