I was moved by these strong women. It’s difficult to leave any country for another country, even for three months or four months for work… For these Moroccan women, it’s difficult to speak up and speak out, because they can lose everything in Spain and in their [home] country. What I show in my film is really not simple at all. Speaking out is a privilege… I want to show these women who are often not visible… [but who] are so strong and amazing. They are like a rock. — Laïla Marrakchi
Welcome Laïla Marrakchi to the closing afternoon of The American French Film Festival 2026 as she presents her new feature Strawberries / La más dulce. This story of Hasna (Nisrin Erradi) and her coworkers as they work the fields of Spain picking strawberries is one of exploitation but ultimately empowerment, as the bonds of solidarity once again prove unbreakable.
Co-starring Hajar Graigaa, Fatima Attif, Larbi Mohammed Ajbar, Fran Cantos, and Itsaso Arana, Strawberries will be followed by a conversation with Marrakchi. See link and info below for details.
STRAWBERRIES
Directed by Laïla Marrakchi
Written by Marrakchi and Delphine Agut
The American French Film Festival
Sunday, November 8, at 1:05 pm
Directors Guild of America
7920 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles
theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org/strawberries
Laïla Marrakchi quotation is from her conversation with Georg Szalai, “Strawberries’ Director on Calling Out Modern-Day Slavery, Prostitution in Her Cannes Homage to Moroccan Fruit Pickers in Spain,” Hollywood Reporter, May 16, 2016.
Laïla Marrakchi, Strawberries / La más dulce (2026), from top: Nisrin Erradi (center); Erradi. Stills courtesy and © Lucky Number.
