Raja (2004)

Editor's Note Set in and around a stunning mansion in Marrakesh, Morocco, which is owned by the rich, middle-aged Frenchman Fred (Pascal Greggory), RAJA is a tale of the power indifferences that keep two stubborn lovers apart. Hired to work in Fred's garden, Raja (Najat Benssallem) is an attractive young woman who was orphaned as a child and is now struggling to survive in poverty. Her attraction to Fred comes primarily out of a desire to marry money and rise in class status. Fred's attraction to Raja comes out of a primal instinct to prove his virility with a resistant young woman, knowing full well that his gender, class, nationality, race, and so forth, give him a clear advantage over her. Playful dialogues between Fred and his kitchen servants range from sex and women to youth and old age. Meanwhile, Raja's strained dialogues with her friends consist of bickering over money, rent, and prostitution. When Raja and Fred come together, they just don't see eye to eye. Furthermore, they literally cannot understand each other as she speaks only Arabic and he only French. This frustrating sexual tension, social rift, and language barrier leaves nothing but mind games and power plays for Fred and Raja, who gouge at each other like mean little children in Fred's fabulously lovely sunny garden. Jacques Doillon's RAJA is a focused, frenzied look at what happens when two strangers from radically different sides of the tracks come explosively together.

	Najat Benssallem
	Hassan Khissal
	Ilham Abdelwahed
	Pascal Greggory
	Ahmed Akensouss
	Fatiha Khoulaki
	Margaret Menegoz - Producer
	Jacques Doillon - Screenwriter
	Benedicte Bellocq - Producer
	Souad Lamriki - Producer
	Helene Louvart - Director of Photography
	Philippe Sarde - Composer
	Jacques Doillon - Director