Following the reappearance of a childhood friend, 3 adults reconnect with this 4th and discover that they had long repressed. As the stakes change, they are forced to take on a Moroccan legend from their childhood.
Written by Jawad Lahlou, Talal Selhami, and David Villemin, and directed by Selhami, Achoura takes on a legend and makes it into something that can be easily brought to the screen (somewhat). The film introduces the main characters as children and shows their bond early on. Then, we skip to the current time and show how they’ve changed, in both the same directions and different ones. This aspect is one that is very well managed here and it helps the film feel more realistic. Granted, this is a supernatural story of a being that comes and takes children, so there is some here. On that front, more on the Achoura legend would have been a great touch and could have brought the creepy factor up a bit. While the characters are fairly well-developed and easy to follow into the story, something in the story is missing. Nonetheless, the film is good. It’s entertaining, it keeps the attention, and it moves at a decent pace. The addition of the hunter of the legend is something that does add to the film, but he does feel a bit less fleshed out. This makes it feel like while the writing is good, some things could have used a bit more time. This could be coming from how the film was shot and edited, but as a final product, it comes off as something missing here and there.
The cast here is solid, with the leads playing characters a relationship that is not perfect and that comes from their childhood and leads to some of the developments in a believable manner. Sofiia Manousha is great as Nadia and she gives the kind of performance that makes the viewer want to see more of her. Playing her childhood friend, now estranged husband Ali is Younes Bouab who comes off a bit hardened and closed off, something that works well here. Playing their friend Stephane is Iván González who adds not as much as one would have wanted, he does however do well as the tormented artist of the group. Giving a strong, yet too short performance is Omar Lotfi as Samir. His performance is tortured, emotional, almost mute, yet completely on point. His work is pretty much exactly what the film needed to connect with the viewer on an emotional level. This lead cast is solid here and so are the performances from the supporting cast.
The film itself looks fantastic with cinematography by Mathieu De Montgrand and editing by Julien Foure, with additional editing by Sébastien Prangère, and Richard Riffaud. The images and how they are put together works really well and gives the film a rather expensive look. However, the CGI is just not there. It’s plentiful when it comes to the being known as Achoura and unfortunately, it’s not that good. It looks dated and like it was done on a shoestring budget, which is unfortunate here. The being should have been left off camera more as it would have been scarier as an unseen than being shown with CGI that just does not work here.
Overall, Achoura is an entertaining film that brings a legend to the screen that most have not seen. The performances are solid with fantastic cinematography, but the CGI used is just not on point here which takes the film down quite a bit in a way that could easily have been avoided. Achoura is a film more than worth checking out, but expectations on the CGI need to be on the lower side.
Read Felix’s take on Achoura here.