Dialogue: Director Orian Barki in attendance.
“One of the most intimate and political animations of the year... BOUCHRA insists on new forms and a new cinematic language.” - John Lynn, International Cinephile Society
"Unusual, surprising, and often moving debut feature" - Lawrence Garcia, In Review
Sunday, June 14, 2:30 p.m. | Wrestling with writer’s block for her first film, Bouchra, a queer Moroccan jackal living in NYC, starts having difficult yet overdue phone calls with her mother in Casablanca that begin influencing the project. Balancing the precarity of working as an artist in New York, the rift in her identity between her two homes and an array of friendships and romantic interests, Bouchra’s emotional reckoning with her mother and herself becomes her path to expression. With a lived-in granularity and unmistakable visual style, BOUCHRA, the feature debut from acclaimed visual artists Meriem Bennani and Orian Barki (best known together from their 2020 web series 2 LIZARDS), is a singular portrait effortlessly towing the line between documentary, visual art and resonant family drama. Deeply felt, surprisingly sexy and formally adventurous, Bennani and Barki’s distinctive debut is likely to become a new queer classic. Dialogue: Director Orian Barki in attendance.
Additional showtimes to be added for June 26–July 2.
Awards & Nominations
Winner - Gold Hugo Outlook Competition, 2026 Chicago International Film Festival
Bleak Week (Animated!) | June 12–17, 2026
In partnership with the American Cinematheque and Music Box Theatre, we are thrilled to participate in Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair. Given animation’s limitless potential to inscribe the darkest of worlds, the Siskel's iteration of Bleak Week focuses on animated films. Join us for this very special showcase of six movies from around the globe featuring a broad range of animation techniques for a communal (and hopefully cathartic) movie-watching experience like no other.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu