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Such a frustrating disappointment

Simply A Masterpiece

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A variation on Hector Babenco's great 'Pixote' this follows the theme of abandoned street kids, being played by real street kids. But "Ali" is much less gritty and naturalistic in style, if not story. Beautiful widescreen photography, some playful animated moments, and a slightly less despairing feel (although it's still pretty dark). A young street boy is killed, and his friends try to figure out how to and his street friends try to figure out how to get him 'buried like a prince', hoping to give his sad, lost life some meaning in death. All the while they have to fend off attacks from the local street gang, find the boy's mother and let her know about her son's sad demise, etc. Very well acted for the most part, and has it's share of touching, heartbreaking moments. But it also feels manipulative and 'moviesh' at others. Certainly a good film, if not quite at the level of it's ancestors.

This film was excellent. I was amazed at the honest portrayal of how these poor children survive alone & uncared for, nobody seemed to care about their terrible situation, and I was saddened by the abuse and cruelty contained in the film both to the children and animals. I have been to Morocco, but did not see any street children & would never have guessed that there was such a problem if not for this film. I will certainly try to keep a track of future films made by this brave individual if this film is anything to go by as he is an honest film maker who does not think viewers need to be protected from the less prettier issues that are in this world. In fact I would like to say thank you to him for making such an interesting film in the first place.

Ali, Kwita, Omar and Boubker are runaways living rough on the streets of Morocco. Having split from the gang of the much older Dib because of being raped, the four live at the port, where Ali dreams of becoming a sailor because of the stories his mother used to tell him years before. When Dib and his gang turn up looking for a fight, Ali is truck with a rock and dies soon after. His friends plan to bury him but it is not long before the stresses start to break them apart; Kwita starts working with the sailor who had taken Ali in while Omar visits Ali's prostitute mother for the first of several times.I'm not sure why I happened to end up watching this film but I am glad that I did because the story is not one that you hear often enough – that of the many kids who live on the streets of third world cities. Here the story is set about the friends trying to bury Ali in a manner that is fitting the dreams he had when he was alive but the film uses this to also show us the world of poverty, fear and abuse that street kids suffer. It is this aspect that kept me interested and it is depressing and rather powerful. The main story has a tendency towards a sentimentality that I suspect the street has little room for in reality. In my case though I was into the characters enough to be able to forgive this although you can't help feeling that the dark touches are really more of these kids' lives than just the mentions that the script gives them.What really makes the film work though is the natural and convincing performances from the majority of the cast. Hansali won it for me because he seems so very beaten and totally convincing. Kbab seems less at home on the street but has more character and more maturity; meanwhile Moussoune is heartbreaking as the youngest of the group. Taghmaoui's Dib is pretty poor and is written as a basic Fagin character and he is not as exploitative and abusive as the script implies that he is. However the lead actors carry it and they are depressingly convincing.Overall this is a great little film that manages to cover its weaknesses with its strengths and delivers a depressing tale even if it does tend to be a bit too sentimental for its own good. If nothing else it adds to the profile of a problem as is as complex as it is hopeless.

It's the kind of movie that I like, when I saw the score for this movie, I almost got a heart attack, but what I wanted to say, I think this is a great story, (maybee such a low score because we don't realise the movie is playing today everywhere in the world) a dramatic story, but still it's dreamy, and I really didn't feel that bad after seeing it, I just knew what I had to do... It really got me thinking, and also the characters are played very good, (if you didn't know, this children are real 'princes of the road', and I really respect them. If u didn't see the movie, get it NOW!!!