The Damned Don't Cry

2022

1h 50m

Drama

List

90%

Tomatometer

20 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Fatima-Zahra and her teenage son Selim move from place to place, forever trying to outrun the latest scandal she's caught up in. When Selim discovers the truth about their past, Fatima-Zahra vows to make a fresh start. In Tangier, new opportunities promise the legitimacy they each crave but not without pushing the volatile mother-son relationship to the breaking point.

Critics Consensus

Centered on the complex relationship between a mother and a son, The Damned Don't Cry compassionately asks hard questions and allows for deeper truths to be discovered.

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Kevin Maher

Times (UK)

There’s a fable-like quality to a story in which the best intentions of both characters somehow produce the worst outcomes for each.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 7, 2023

Full Review

Danny Leigh

Financial Times

Cruelties flow beneath: class, colonialism and the self-delusion of men with power that they are being kind when actually protecting their own interests.

Rated: 5/5

Jul 6, 2023

Full Review

Philip De Semlyen

Time Out

Life in The Damned Don’t Cry is brutally unfair, and Boulifa offers no easy answers. But thanks to the compassionate filmmaker and his two impressive leads, it’s a compelling watch.

Rated: 3/5

Jul 6, 2023

Full Review

William Stottor

Loud and Clear Reviews

Fyzal Boulifa swaps British suburbia for the streets of Morocco in his rich but surprisingly tepid sophomore feature, The Damned Don’t Cry.

Rated: 3/5

Aug 13, 2024

Full Review

Amber Wilkinson

Radio Times

Tebbae and El Hajjouji are both compelling, and the film's sweetest moments effectively work in contrast with the unjust, casual callousness of the pair's world.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 21, 2023

Full Review

Hilary A White

Sunday Independent (Ireland)

This melodrama from British-Moroccan filmmaker Fyzal Boulifa spells out the hard facts of poverty in North Africa and how passively the shackles are transferred from one generation to the next.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 13, 2023

Full Review

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Fyzal Boulifa

Director

Abdellah El Hajjouji

Selim

Aicha Tebbae

Fatima-Zahra

Antoine Reinartz

Sébastien

Fyzal Boulifa

Screenwriter

Gary Farkas

Producer

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Synopsis

Fatima-Zahra and her teenage son Selim move from place to place, forever trying to outrun the latest scandal she's caught up in. When Selim discovers the truth about their past, Fatima-Zahra vows to make a fresh start. In Tangier, new opportunities promise the legitimacy they each crave but not without pushing the volatile mother-son relationship to the breaking point.

Director: Fyzal Boulifa
Producer: Gary Farkas, Clément Lepoutre, Olivier Muller, Karim Debbagh
Screenwriter: Fyzal Boulifa
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Arabic
Runtime: 1h 50m