On that hardly smooth river that is true life, ignorance often leads to failure and echoes like the misery of the soul.

Of an unforgettable Mohamed Choukri, through the unwinding of a narration-confession, "For bread alone", a novel of pregnant tones, uncovers the vanity of all those social thoughts or economical theories, that try to conceal this primordial truth: no progress is possible where illiteracy persists, nor progress, and not even civilization.
For all those who have found their faith in Islam, we shall never enough underline that such faith, happy quivering of a lively thought, intends to lead them from darkness to light.
To testify the above, there's the first verse revealed by the Prophet, first word and line of the Koran: < IQRA' > = < READ >. It is in this inaugural revelation that the Holy Scriptures put the accent on the indissoluble bond between "reading" and "writing": "because the Lord, who taught man how to use the calamus ( = a split bamboo, used to write), taught him what he didn't know."

Unfortunately, today many Muslims seem to have forgotten this founding message and many have given a repelling idea of their religion. Director Rachid Benhadj deserves our best praise for having thought of adapting "For bread alone" for the big screen, contributing, in some way, to help a luminous message break through the shadows of darkness.

So this way no seed shall die, ignorance shall never overcome, and a short verse, engraved anywhere, may save a soul...

Azedine Beschaouch
Institute Member
Scientific Counsellor of UNESCO

What are the artistic motivations that force us to tell this story?
First of all, the desire of letting a vaster audience acknowledge the work of a great contemporary writer and the non-common story of his life, that, as all aware lives, is a the vehicle of a more immediate message, more convincing, capable of talking to men of all latitudes.
Besides this, the story is suited for youngsters, being the exemplar story of a boy of their age, and of his great courage.
Through the vicissitudes of little Mohammed, born in total misery, who passes the day looking for a piece of bread and trying to survive among delinquents, prostitutes, and crooks of all kinds, any young man can learn that there is hope and redemption even for him.
Choukri had the luck of discovering the extraordinary capacity of communicating through the written word at 20 years old, in a jail at Tangeri.
This contact with writing and reading created the necessary anger to make him free himself from an even greater misery, the misery of ignorance and illiteracy.
Thanks to his determination, the young man outdid the delay by learning how to read and write his first alphabet letters on the wall of a prison or on the graves of a cemetery. He then went to school and became an elementary teacher. Then, after the success of his first novel, "For bread alone", soon a best-seller translated worldwide, Mohamed Choukri faced a brilliant writing career.
"For bread alone" is the crude story of misery and sufferance. It talks straight to the heart, proving that it is never late to change the course of our lives. Listening to the needs of our deepest inner self, could allow each of us to find the strength and courage to give a definite turn to life.
"For bread alone" is most of all the story of an individual rebellion made by little Mohammed Choukri against his father, this omnipotent father, symbol of all oppressions, compared by the writer to the coercion exercised by France on Morocco during those years.
For Mohammed Choukri, freeing himself from the injustices that his father forced unto him, is the first step to free himself from colonial power. The first revolt becomes a symbol for the second to take place.
But at the same time, the film based upon this novel presented in a contemporary time, sets down burning questions on the future, and not only of Morocco and the countries of the Third World, but of the entire community.
Where will the much-dreamed-of independence lead these nations? What road will they take? What relations will be established between them and the old colonial powers? Is it useless to hope that one day the Third World and the Western World, split between prejudices and misunderstandings, may consider themselves as part of a whole community?
In spite of the many prejudices that today like yesterday mine our societies ­ prejudices that often become pathological hatred ­ the young hero of "For bread alone" predicts the changes that can take place only through the mutual knowledge of the best East and the best West.

Rabat

Salè

Casablanca

Said Taghmauoi

Back in time many years, I was travelling through Morocco learning how to take still pictures on a movie. I was quite starting my career as a photographer. After about fifteen years of the most various jobs on photography, out of cinema, I met Rachid Benhadj who asked me to be part of the troupe on "For Bread Alone". He introduced me in the poetry of Mohamed Choukri and practically in the poetry of north african literature that I didn' know.
Travelling through Morocco after the reading of this book has naturally changed the way I was looking at the people and the history of this land.
With this few lines I wish to thank Rachid because of his strenght, motivation and delicacy and also I want to thank all those who strongly wanted the movie and this book to came out to reality.

Claudio Martinez