Director Halima Ouardiri premieres latest short film The Skates at TIFF

“I condensed those emotions and memories into a completely fictional story,” Ouardiri explains. “Inès Feghouli is a brilliant actress, very serious, very mature and very easy to work with. I am so impressed with her work.”

Like Feghouli, Ouardiri fell in love with filmmaking when she was a young girl. “It comes from my love of storytelling when I was kid,” Ouardiri says. “I used to create live productions with my cousins and we would invite our parents to see our shows.”

A validating experience

The Swiss-Moroccan screenwriter and film director moved to Montreal to study film production at Concordia. Ouardiri says her studies helped her hone her skills and shape her career.

“Studying at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema gave me confidence. My teachers encouraged me, and the experience was a validation. I also made some lifelong friends, many of whom I work with today.”

Ouardiri adds that she is also grateful for the groundbreaking women filmmakers who blazed a trail in the film industry. “Support from Telefilm Canada and SODEC [the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles in Quebec] has improved in recent years for women filmmakers.

“At TIFF this year, I am very happy for Quebec to have so many great films directed by women: Solo by Sophie Dupuis [BFA 10], and Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant by Ariane Louis-Seize among others.”

Ouardiri is currently negotiating financing for the production of her first fiction feature film, The Camel Driving School, a comedy co-produced by companies in different countries: Indie Prod and Take Shelter in France, Morocco’s Le Moindre Geste Production and Art et Essai in Canada.

“It’s important to me that The Camel Driving School is largely a Moroccan film,” says Ouardiri. “The Moroccan co-producers [added] the final touches on the script, and we presented everything to distributors at the beginning of October.”

The Skates premieres in Quebec at Cinemania on November 3.