Having made a splash with tense and brutal petty crime caper short “No Key,” an Indie Short Fest winner that also screened at Fantastic Fest, Casablanca-born director Walid Messnaoui and fast-building Moroccan production house Caestus Films are preparing Messnaoiu’s first feature, “The Last Beast of Atlas,” described as a twilight Western and drama.
“The Last Beast” rates as one of the buzzy debuts to be presented at the Marrakech Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops, which promises a dazzling array of titles from usually young talent from Africa and the Arab World which embrace a huge variety of genres. “The Last Beast” is a prominent example.
Produced by Caestus Films founders Taoufik Rais and El Mahdi Amsrouy, “The Last Beast of Atlas” is set in the heart of the Middle Atlas in the 1990s. It turns on Boulohouch, a legendary outlaw who leading…
