AIFF 2022: The Blue Caftan

 The Blue Caftan is a beautiful, quiet and very touching Moroccan film which won the Audience and the Critics Awards in the AIFF, this past Saturday, October 8th and rightly so. It is the story of Halim (Saleh Bakri) and Mina (Lubna Azabal), a couple who run a traditional caftan store in one of Morocco's oldest Medinas. Halim is a maalem, a tailor who refuses to ever use a machine for his creations and does everything by hand, while Mina, his wife, is the one who deals and haggles with the customers, takes orders and delivers the clothes her husband meticulously crafts. 

When we first meet them, they have just hired a new employee, Youssef (Ayoub Missioui), to help Halim finish the caftans quicker. It is then, also, that a client orders a blue caftan which will take the tailor at least a month and a half to make all by himself. The newest soft-spoken apprentice is willing to learn from his mentor and seems to truly respect Halim. Their connection does not go unnoticed by Mina, even though she does not seem fazed by it.

It soon appears that this small family hides a lot of secrets from the outside world: we learn that all the former assistants have left the apprenticeship unexpectedly and suddenly, and we quickly become witness to Halim's oppressed desires. A few afternoons every week, he visits the hamam where he meets different men with whom he has sex. 

Despite all this, the closeted man and his wife have an admirable love and respect for each other. They are partners both in life and business and they share everything as true couples do. It is not long, though, before we learn that Mina is sick and close to dying. This is when their love shines and the film becomes extremely moving and personal. The way that Halim and Mina look at each other, the way the husband takes care of his wife and the concern that the wife feels for her husband are all coming out of the silver screen in waves. 

The Blue Caftan soon becomes a race against time both for the maalem to finish his caftan before the deadline, as well as for his wife not to die. It is a beautiful film, with wonderful cinematography and moments that evoke emotions from the audience. Its subtlety and its minimalistic direction make for a movie worthy of an award, even though its duration could have been reduced by removing a few repeated scenes, without which the emotional result would still be as strong, if not more. 

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