Queens

Zineb is a convicted drug dealer nearing the end of her prison sentence. When the authorities threaten to place her misbehaving 11-year-old daughter, Ines, in a child protection center, Zineb breaks out of jail, collects the girl, hijacks a truck and takes to the road. Asma happens to be a passenger in the truck, but is now forced to drive Zineb and Ines. A young mechanic, Asma is under the thumb of her husband who takes her wages and tries to unsettle her with tales of women being assaulted and nobody coming to their aid. Her abduction is a liberation from her daily routine. They meet a young hitchhiker along the way and an appealing subplot unfolds with the two cops pursuing them. Close to retirement, Nabil is an old dinosaur who resents being partnered with 35 year-old newcomer Batoul, but the growing mutual respect between them is one of the film’s most heartening elements.


Yasmine Benkiran

Growing up on the Atlantic coast in Morocco, she studied philosophy and communication sciences in Paris. After gaining her first experience of the film industry in Buenos Aires, San Francisco and London, she attended the Screenwriting Workshop at La Fémis, the French national film school. As a screenwriter, Yasmine writes for both television and cinema. She has also written two books about Morocco and a historical podcast series about Alice Guy, the world's first female director. In 2018, Yasmine directed her first short film, Winter Time. Queens is her first feature film as a director.