The Wretched Life of Juanita Narboni

Juanita, the daughter of an Englishman from Gibraltar and an Andalusian woman, can’t cope with the many changes in the city of Tanger and becomes more isolated every day. She has the company of her sister Elena, a women who was educated in the French Lycée and searched for her freedom; Esther, her Sephardi Jewish close friend who devoted all her life to an impossible love story with a Moroccan man; and Hamruch, the loyal servant and permanent support who one day disappeared for Juanita to find out that she knew nothing about her. A succession of historical events are taking place in the background of their lives: the Spanish civil war, which brought about the arrival in Tanger of the Khalifa´s troops; the Second World War, which attracted to the city many refugees from all over Europe; and the independence of Morocco, which sent Tanger back to its Arab origins. Juanita’s tragedy is that she doesn’t understand that her world is bound to disappear due to the demolishing and refreshing force of History.

Cast:
Mariola Fuentes (Juanita Narboni)
Lou Doillon (Helena Narboni)
Nabila Baraka (Esther)
Salima Benmoumen (Hamruch)

Director: Farida Belyazid
Writer: Gerardo Bellod, Ángel Vázquez
Runtime: 101 min
Genre: Comedy
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: Greek, English
Production Year: 2005