The contradictions of Moroccan society--culturally vibrant and playful, yet stiflingly traditional and patriarchal--are viewed with bemusement in writer-director Ahmed El Maanouni's unique take on the melancholy truism, "You can't go home again."  Having escaped the tumult and tension of his birthplace a decade ago, young architect Amin hesitantly returns to Fez when he learns that his overbearing uncle is on his deathbed.  Long-dormant resentments surface, and Amin must reconcile his family ties with the hard-won independence of adulthood.  Shot in luminous black and white and scored with evocative Moroccan folk music, Burned Hearts--like the Sufi philosopher whose ruminations bookend the story--is wise to the painful, wondrous complexities of  life.  This year's Moroccan submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Selected Filmography: Oh the Days! (78), Transes (81), Moroccan Goumiers (93).