Simone Bitton, 2021, 99 min. In Arabic, French and English with English Subtitles Q&A with Madeleine Dobie

In Arabic, Ziyara (زيارة) means visit to the saints. Celebrated filmmaker Simone Bitton embarks on a personal road trip across Morocco, tracing the remnants of the country’s once-thriving Jewish community. In the 1950s, Morocco was home to 300,000 Jews; today, only a small fraction remain, yet their saints’ tombs endure—cared for by Muslim guardians who preserve their memory. Through close examination of synagogues, shrines, and village records, Bitton uncovers stories of coexistence, loss, and endurance. Ziyara is both a meditation on migration and a hopeful reflection on shared heritage, revealing a delicate thread between past and present, tradition and modernity. As the camera gathers stories, smiles, and blessings, it patiently repairs connections long thought severed.

Watch the trailer here.

“An inimitable and thought-provoking new perspective to the complexities of the Arab world” – Variety

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