Beach Café  (2001)

Theatrical Release Information:
Beach Café

Adapted from a work by Paul Bowles and co-written by Andre Techine, this film -- directed by Benoit Graffin) -- is about the complicated relationship between a young up-and-comer and a silver-haired lothario. Driss is a jack-of-all trades type who sells fish from his car and moves furniture from one end of his hometown Tangiers to the other. His girlfriend is a free-spirited and wealthy European lass who runs an antique shop. One day, Driss becomes fascinated with Fouad, an old man who runs a rundown café by the beach. Fouad disdains his fellow Moroccans, calling them lazy, preferring the company of Europeans -- particularly, as Driss later learns -- young European women. Always on the make, Driss offers Fouad a business proposition -- to revamp his establishment and turn it into a proper restaurant with Driss as his business partner. He is later shocked and hurt to learn that Fouad starts to remodel his business but without Driss. Sending out his friends as spies, Driss learns a number of unsettling things about his would-be associate. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide