SECTIONS // PANORAMA OF THE SPANISH DOCUMENTARY

Madres Invisibles (Invisible Mothers)

Lorenzo Benítez
67' / 2016 / Spain
Arabic, Spanish, French
English and spanish subtitled

Hafida is a single mother in Tangier who fled home after falling pregnant. Years later, she has become a sex and reproductive health educator and returns to her city, El Jadida, with her son. The men in her family refuse to recognise her motherhood. Sex outside marriage is a crime in Morocco. The law brands single mothers whores and their children bastards. They face the deepest stigmas and taboos in Moroccan society.

Main Festivals & Awards

Estreno mundial / World premiere: DocumentaMadrid 2016
Seleccionada para / Selected for: Festival Doc Shop, Doc Shop Online de Hot Docs (Canadá) 2016 / International Pitch Mipdoc Cannes 2014 / Miradasdoc Pitch 2013

Director's Biography

Lorenzo Benítez (Cádiz, 1973) is Director and Co-producer of the documentary Madres Invisibles, which marks his directorial debut following fourteen years of activity in film and documentary TV. During that time he worked as a Researcher, Assistant Director and Assistant Producer on various documentaries broadcast on Al Jazeera, ZDF, Arte, TVE and Canal Sur TV. He co-founded Cádiz.doc, the International Independent Documentary Festival, and has given workshops on journalism and documentary filmmaking in the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Morocco, at Abdelmalek Essadi University. For the last 3 years he has contributed towards the international distribution of documentaries, working with 3BOXMEDIA (Cologne, Germany). In 2015 he worked as a consultant for the Canary Island Government’s CREADOC programme for the development of feature-length documentaries, and was a member of the panel of judges at the IN-EDIT Barcelona International Music Documentary Film Festival. This August he will take part in the EAVE PUENTES EU-Latin America Co-Production, International Distribution and Marketing Workshop at the Locarno Film Festival.