House in the Fields

House in the Fields examines the life of an isolated rural Amazigh community in the south-west region of the High Atlas Mountains. The thousand-year history of the Amazigh in Morocco has been, for the most part, recounted, preserved and transmitted by bards and storytellers in oral form among Tamazight speaking pastoral communities. 

Continuing this tradition of transmission in an audiovisual form, House in the Fields attempts to faithfully document and present a portrait of a village and community that has remained unchanged for hundreds of years despite being confronted with the rapidly changing sociopolitical realities of the country at large. The film follows the lives of certain villagers, most specifically two teenage sisters, one who must give up school to prepare for her wedding, and the other who dreams of being a judge. 

“Beautifully intimate and charged with the sense of inevitable change to come, this prescient production, embellished with minimal sound and a fantastic spectacle of celebration for an ending, makes House in the Fields well worth the journey.” 

— Rene J. Meyer-Grimberg, Berlin Film Journal 

"Hadid's film beautifully frames the sisters within their domestic setting and the wider Moroccan society, and handles the balance between daily chores and personal dreams with grace and sincerity. A powerful documentary filmed in a section of North Africa rarely seen in the media, this is highly recommended." 

— P. Hall, Video Librarian