"Ziyara"
Barcelona Jewish Film Festival
Filmoteca de Catalunya Plaça Salvador Seguí 1-9, 08001 Barcelona
Film still from "Ziyara," directed by Simone Bitton (France, Morocco, 2020).
Until the 1950s, Morocco was home to more than 300,000 Jews. In little more than a decade, a wave of emigration scattered this community across France, Israel, and the Americas. In Ziyara—an Arabic term for a pilgrimage to sacred places—Simone Bitton returns to her native land in search of Jewish traces, rediscovering along the way Darija, the Moroccan Arabic dialect of her childhood that she had thought long forgotten. The journey becomes a meditation on memory, on coexistence between Jews and Muslims, and on a single question: what would Morocco look like today if its Jews had stayed?
Simone Bitton is an award-winning filmmaker whose films engage with the complexities of history, identity, and political struggle. Her films have won numerous awards, including the César Award, the Marseille Festival of Documentary Film Award, and the Sundance Film Festival, Special Jury Prize.
As a Jewish French-Moroccan filmmaker and activist, Bitton has dared to criticize human rights abuses and has resisted dominant narratives that seek to inscribe Zionism on the Jewish diaspora. Through her thoughtful exploration of Middle Eastern and North African histories, Bitton offers vital, nuanced perspectives that confront questions of justice, memory, and identity.
Film will be screened in original version with subtitles in Catalan.
A film in the 2026 edition of the Barcelona Jewish Film Festival.
October Film Festivals in and around Barcelona
October’s calendar is packed with an impressive list of film festivals in and around the city. Check out our article October Film Festivals in and around Barcelona where you'll find gritty investigative documentaries, hair-raising fantasy and horror flicks and everything in between!
For more events check our online events calendar.