In Theaters 06.26.2026 or Watch at Home 08.21.2026

Bouchra

Directed by Orian Barki, Meriem Bennani
Film Movement
2025
85 Minutes
Italy, Morocco, USA
English, Arabic, French
Drama, Animation, LGBTQIA2S+
Not Rated
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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 forges new ground that “will make it a classic of queer cinema for years to come” (Next Best Picture).

Director & Cast

  • Director: Orian Barki
  • Director: Meriem Bennani
  • Starring: Meriem Bennani
  • Starring: Orian Barki
  • Starring: Ariana Faye Allensworth
  • Starring: Fayçal Azizi
  • Starring: Yto Barrada

Where to Watch

Fandango At Home

Trailer

Film Movement

Photos

Reviews

  • "This may be a story featuring animated coyotes, frogs and other animals on screen, but the particulars are very human: conversations stilted with pauses because neither party can easily open up; hidden ephemera and objects held dearly because of what they represent; uneasiness followed by relief after a simple affirmation of love..."
    Murtada Elfadl, Variety
  • "Where autobiography and documentary—especially about marginalized communities—promise revelation and understanding, Bouchra holds us at a slight distance...Bouchra proposes that we might be moved by a life, even implicated in it, without being able to fully know it"
    Abirami Logendran, Film Comment
  • "The sheer intimacy with which everything in the film is presented, even with the relative remove of anthropomorphizing all the characters, is what makes it sing; the unrealness emphasizes the real narratives and emotions behind those digital facades."
    Juan Barquin, RogerEbert.com
  • "An aesthetically bold, personal animation...an inventive approach."
    Jared Mobarak, The Film Stage
  • "Far from reiterating tired binaries -- tradition versus modernity, elders versus youngsters -- the film embraces the beauty of contradictions with open arms."
    Phuong Le, The Guardian
  • "[U]nusual, surprising, and often moving...."
    Lawrence Garcia, In Review Online
  • "Between the animation style and the decidedly adult content, the film’s ultimate sweetness is completely disarming. It doesn’t come out of nowhere, though, as it’s rooted in the same emotional honesty that marks all of the film’s dialogue. That quality will make it a classic of queer cinema for years to come, but its unique wavelength will make it a film that means everything to young adults who are already on that wavelength, and that makes it worth everything."
    Dan Bayer, Next Best Picture
  • "For all the ways it hits the beats of traditional queer and diaspora narratives, “Bouchra” never comes across as reductive in its portrayal of the relationship between mother and daughter or the dynamics within divergent cultures."
    Juan Barquin, RogerEbert.com
  • "With animation as a protective veil and real voices bringing intimacy, Bouchra carves a unique spot for itself, successfully blending these elements to make a poignant and resonant story..."
    Murtada Elfadl, Variety
  • "Bouchra suggests that the “real” self is not a pure core waiting to be discovered, but an assembled creature: a hybrid of different tongues and textures, rendered and re-rendered across every version of itself."
    Fatoumata Bah, Mubi Notebook
  • "[A] surreal, animated autofiction musing on queerness, creativity and the North African diaspora. [E]verything about it is made with such intelligence and rigour...."
    David Katz, Cineuropa
  • "Bouchra is a touching and inventive film... that insists on new forms and a new cinematic language. For this alone, it should be sought out and cherished."
    John Lynn, International Cinephile Society
  • "Ever since the independent film boom in the 1990s, semi-autobiographical, slice-of-life dramas unpacking the filmmaker’s personal traumas and preoccupations have been a festival mainstay. But Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani’s “Bouchra” is the most inventive and striking slant on that old paradigm in years."
    Dominic Griffin, Baltimore Beat
  • "Bouchra is gorgeous to look at. It’s wistful and charming. The story feels universal because its characters and interactions are so specific. It’s wonderful to see such a touching and hopeful queer story centering characters from other backgrounds."
    Monita Roy Mohan, Geek Girl Authority
  • "I sincerely hope that Bouchra gets a wide release somehow. Not only is the film beautiful to look at, a feat of animation, and a triumph of complex storytelling, but it’s also a story of queer acceptance that is needed around the world today."
    Louis Skye (Ronita Roy Mohan), FlickSided
Winner
Gold Q-Hugo
Chicago Int'l. Film Festival
Winner
Prix Nouvelles Vagues Acuitis
La Roche-sur-Yon Int'l. Film Festival
Nominated
Platform Award
Toronto Int'l. Film Festival
Official Selection
New York Film Festival
Official Selection
Thessaloniki Int'l. Film Festival

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