Salvation Army, L’Armée du Salut, Abdellah Taia’s (abdellahtaia.free.fr) second directorial film from 2013 based on son troisième roman écrit, le Bildungsroman, L’Armée du salut. Il a pour thème la jeunesse de l’auteur et son éveil sexuel, à travers deux histoires en parallèle. L’une raconte les souvenirs d’enfance et d’adolescence de l’auteur au Maroc, construits autour de l’importance de son frère aîné. L’autre traite de sa liaison avec un universitaire suisse alors qu’il est étudiant et son arrivée à Genève.

I like how he tells it, it’s not a pretty story, and it’s based on his growing up on Morocco, mostly. His growing up is not for sissies kids. After watching the film, reading the book that term has a fuller meaning.

Abdellah Taia wrote the book after giving an interview to Tequel (Moroccan) magazine (telquel.ma), and the ensuing controversy of Morocco having an openly gay man of words.
Karim Ait M’Hand below immediate image in video, and Said Mrini play Abdellah.

Abdellah’s 2012 op-ed for the New York Times, entitled A Boy to Be Sacrificed, which the film reflects.
In the Morocco of the 1980s, where homosexuality did not, of course, exist, I was an effeminate little boy, a boy to be sacrificed, a humiliated body who bore upon himself every hypocrisy, everything left unsaid. By the time I was 10, though no one spoke of it, I knew what happened to boys like me in our impoverished society; they were designated victims, to be used, with everyone’s blessing, as easy sexual objects by frustrated men. And I knew that no one would save me — not even my parents, who surely loved me. For them too, I was shame, filth. A ‘zamel’..

Read his 2012 NYT op-ed here: nytimes.com/2012/03/25/opinion/sunday/a-boy-to-be-sacrificed.html

Kennys.ie have the book [en] for @14 euro incl. delivery.
Featured manipulated images from Abdellah Taia’s website and keepbreathing25.deviantart.com.