Maryam Touzani – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Maryam Touzani talks CALLE MALAGA, Aging with Spirit and Personal Storytelling – Jennifer Green interviews

March 3, 2026March 6, 2026 Jennifer Green Ahmed Boulane, calle malaga, Carmen Maura, international oscars, María Alfonsa Rosso, Marta Etura, Maryam Touzani, Moroccan films, Nabil Ayouch

Tangier-born writer-actor-director Maryam Touzani says that with her new film Calle Malaga, she wanted to “celebrate the beauty of aging and the freedom that can come with aging.” The story turns on a 70-something woman, played by Spanish veteran Carmen Maura, who insists on remaining in her home in Tangier—against all odds. In doing so, she remakes her life, finds new love and reinforces her connections with her Moroccan roots, the place where she was born and raised as part of a Spanish immigrant community. The subject was personal for Touzani, whose own blended Moroccan-Spanish family gave inspiration for Calle Málaga.

Reviews

CALLE MALAGA – Review by Jennifer Green

February 19, 2026February 20, 2026 Jennifer Green Ahmed Boulane, calle malaga, Carmen Maura, international oscars, María Alfonsa Rosso, Marta Etura, Maryam Touzani, Moroccan films, Nabil Ayouch

Calle Málaga is a warm and surprising tale about aging, family and sense of place. Veteran Carmen Maura stars as an elderly Spanish woman, raised as part of an immigrant community in Tangier, Morocco, who steadfastly refuses to spend her sunset years doing anything other than living the life she desires. She is a quiet yet determined 70-something heroine. Tangier-born director Maryam Touzani, who co-wrote the script with regular collaborator Nabil Ayouch, has constructed a nuanced and sensitive film that infuses its story, star and setting with layers of meaning.

Reviews

CALLE MALAGA – Review by Lynn Venhaus

January 28, 2026February 2, 2026 Lynn Venhaus Ahmed Boulane, calle malaga, Carmen Maura, María Alfonsa Rosso, Marta Etura, Maryam Touzani, Moroccan films, Nabil Ayouch

Films about final acts are often divided into sweet or sour, spirited or sad, and Calle Malaga is a stimulating blend of both, for Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani starts with a negative but flips it into a positive. Inspired by her grandmother (and dedicated to her), Touzani co-wrote this warm and tender drama with her husband, filmmaker Nabil Ayouch. Their exploration of a simple, gentle life cycle is invigorated by the expressive Spanish actress Carmen Maura. As the vibrant 79-year-old widow, Maria Angeles Munoz, Maura commands the screen like a maestra seizing a baton.

News

WEEK IN WOMEN: Maryam Touzani’s CALLE MALAGA to open Palm Springs IFF – Brandy McDonnell reports

December 26, 2025December 27, 2025 Brandy McDonnell Carmen Maura, Maryam Touzani, Palm Springs International Film Festival, the week in women, twiw

Acclaimed Moroccan writer, director and actress Maryam Touzani’s award-winning Spanish-language drama Calle Malaga has been selected to open the 2026 Palm Springs International Film Festival, set for Jan. 2-12 in Palm Springs, California. A Tangier native, Touzani started her film career as a critic, but in 2008, she wrote and directed a documentary for the first National Women’s Day in Morocco. In 2019, she directed her first feature film, Adam, selected for the Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival in France and shortlisted for the Oscars.

Festivals Reviews

THE BLUE CAFTAN (TIFF 2022) – Review by Cate Marquis

October 12, 2022October 16, 2022 Cate Marquis Ayoub Missioui, Lubna Azabal, Maryam Touzani, Saleh Bakri, The Blue Caftan, TIFF 2022, toronto international film festival

Saleh Bakri and Lubna Azabal deliver moving performances as a traditional tailor and his wife struggling to make a living in one of the oldest medinas in Morocco, in writer/director Maryam Touzani’s moving, thought-provoking human drama The Blue Caftan. Although the drama features a traditional craftsman practicing a fading art, at its heart, The Blue Caftan is really about love in its various forms, romantic love, a love of a craft, and more. It is also a showcase for some striking performances, particularly from Lubna Azabal, in the story that takes surprising twists, and is by turns powerfully dramatic, funny, touching, or heart-wrenching, as this excellent French Moroccan, Arabic-language film unfolds

Reviews

ADAM – Melbourne IFF Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

August 7, 2019August 7, 2019 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas 0 Comments adan, Maryam Touzani, melbourne international film festival, Nisrin Erradi

Playing in the prestigious Un Certain Regard category of this year’s Cannes film festival, director and screenwriter Maryam Touzani’s Moroccan-set feature film debut Adam is demonstrating further international appeal with its recent screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival.