Two AFAC-supported films will be shown at the Locarno Film Festival in the coming days when the Swiss movie forum opens for its 75th edition. Both films by Moroccan directors – Adnane Baraka’s “Fragments from Heaven” and Sofia El Khyari’s “L'Ombre des papillons” (Shadow of the Butterflies) — and received support through AFAC’s 2020 cinema and documentary films grant programs.

At Locarno, Baraka’s feature — a questing fiction that sees a nomad and a scientist trek through the Moroccan desert in search for earthbound meteorites that have the power to transform their lives — will be shown in the festival’s Concorso Cineasti del presente section, which is dedicated to “discovering tomorrow’s cinema” by showcasing first and second feature length films directed by “emerging global talents.”

Khyari’s nine-minute animated short will be screened in the festival’s Pardi di domani section, which is dedicated to “expressive experimentation and innovative formal poetry.” “Shadow of the Butterflies” fits the experimental bill, as it meditates on a woman, gripped by the memory of past love, who takes refuge in the contemplation of butterflies that populate a mysterious forest.

For more information on their films and the rest of what is showing at Locarno, see the festival’s full program on its website.