Burning Casablanca (Zanka Contact)

In hellish Casablanca, a car-crash sets ablaze a burning, passionate love story between has-been rocker Larsen and the streetwise amazon Rajae. An unspoken trauma is their common history; rock ’n’roll their mutual saviour. Larsen’s snakeskin-covered guitar and Rajae’s liquid gold voice could be heaven, if only everything from his drug-induced visions to her music-buff pimp didn’t get in the way. The only hope for their blooming romance is to skip this ferocious town. Is there a way out of this crazy Moroccan underworld with its menagerie of sadistic cops, venomous snakes, metal concerts and shotgun-wielding modern-day Calamity Janes? For these punk Romeo and Juliet, maybe the answer lies in a song—the one they’ve been writing and dreaming together: Zanka Contact. (Venice International Film Festival)