L'Armée du salut (2014)
Directed by Abdellah Taia

Film Synopsis

Abdellah is an adolescent, still in his mid teens, who lives in a busy working class district of Casablanca with his large family.  Intimidated by both his violent father and his authoritarian mother he is struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality, a fact of life that is vehemently denied by the community in which he lives.  He worships his older brother Slimane, who speaks French in preference to Arabic, but is given a hard time by his five sisters, who seem to enjoy persecuting him.  In a society where to be openly gay is impossible, Abdellah keeps his sexual identity to himself, his experiences so far consisting only of furtive liaisons with predatory older men.  Ten years later, Abdellah's life has changed for the better.  Now he has a lover, in the form of a Swiss academic.  With the latter's help, he obtains a grant to attend Geneva University.  As he settles into his new life in a more liberated and tolerant country, Abdellah embraces the freedom that this stroke of good fortune offers him, but he soon begins to regret leaving behind the country where he grew up...