"Wisdom" is Sofia in Greek.
A waring is issued before the movie begins: an affair out of wedlocks is punished by law in Morrocco.Sofia ,who belongs to the upper middle-class, must marry .Her parents' bright prospects might be thwarted by the scandal ;they have big agricultural plans and Sofia is told so :"opportunity knocks for your family ;don't get in their way".Sofia's cousin,who married a French man and who is fluent in this language -which Sofia does not really masters- abets her : she epitomizes the "modern" woman in a society in decay : there's a short scene ,that of the orange juice , which might seem insignificant: it's actually revealing.All seem to want to save Sofia ,all are concerned with a God who is no longer Allah but money ;hypocrisy runs rampant in this family whose purpose is to keep up appearances ...
The real victim,sacrificed on the altar of the moneychangers of the Temple, is Omar .A working class boy, who has to support his family because his father is dead : in this society,this is pivotal ,for he has not yet established himself as the Man,the head of the family ;he appears first as a bashful listless boy. The way Sofia's wealthy family treats him takes cynicism to new limits; it's pure blackmail:falsely accused of rape, a five-year sentence hangs over his head as a sword of Damocles ,he has to resign himself to marry this girl he does not love ; his mother,anyway, does not try to defend him :after all,it's a way of getting out of poverty : what does it matter if the baby is not his?And anyway ,should he go to jail,who would feed his poor family?
In the last part of the movie,one sides with Omar;his only fault was to offer comfort to Sofia when she was fired from her job , he never touched her.He manages to keep his pride and his dignity : he spits at his wife,he does not care about her offspring .When he is given a hefty sum (and promised a promotion to his job) ,his answer may seem crude: it's in fact admirable, a rebel stand against the blight of corruption.
The movie abruptly ends ,with a false happy end ,and the festive atmosphere contrasts with the hateful triumph of the bourgeois family with a capital B.
A waring is issued before the movie begins: an affair out of wedlocks is punished by law in Morrocco.Sofia ,who belongs to the upper middle-class, must marry .Her parents' bright prospects might be thwarted by the scandal ;they have big agricultural plans and Sofia is told so :"opportunity knocks for your family ;don't get in their way".Sofia's cousin,who married a French man and who is fluent in this language -which Sofia does not really masters- abets her : she epitomizes the "modern" woman in a society in decay : there's a short scene ,that of the orange juice , which might seem insignificant: it's actually revealing.All seem to want to save Sofia ,all are concerned with a God who is no longer Allah but money ;hypocrisy runs rampant in this family whose purpose is to keep up appearances ...
The real victim,sacrificed on the altar of the moneychangers of the Temple, is Omar .A working class boy, who has to support his family because his father is dead : in this society,this is pivotal ,for he has not yet established himself as the Man,the head of the family ;he appears first as a bashful listless boy. The way Sofia's wealthy family treats him takes cynicism to new limits; it's pure blackmail:falsely accused of rape, a five-year sentence hangs over his head as a sword of Damocles ,he has to resign himself to marry this girl he does not love ; his mother,anyway, does not try to defend him :after all,it's a way of getting out of poverty : what does it matter if the baby is not his?And anyway ,should he go to jail,who would feed his poor family?
In the last part of the movie,one sides with Omar;his only fault was to offer comfort to Sofia when she was fired from her job , he never touched her.He manages to keep his pride and his dignity : he spits at his wife,he does not care about her offspring .When he is given a hefty sum (and promised a promotion to his job) ,his answer may seem crude: it's in fact admirable, a rebel stand against the blight of corruption.
The movie abruptly ends ,with a false happy end ,and the festive atmosphere contrasts with the hateful triumph of the bourgeois family with a capital B.
