The Blue Caftan

A married tailor falls for his younger apprentice in Maryam Touzani’s richly textured and sweepingly beautiful exploration of love, desire and tradition.

Mina (Lubna Azabal) and her husband Halim (Saleh Bakri) run a small shop selling traditional, hand-stitched caftans in Salé, Morocco. To help with customer demand, the couple hire young apprentice Youssef (Ayoub Missioui) – but complications arise when Mina notices a deeper connection forming between the master tailor and his protégé.

Hand-stitched with loving care, this mature, resonant drama is the latest from Touzani, writer-director of 2019’s Adam. The Blue Caftan is an emotionally complex, richly empathetic depiction of a partnership sustained through storms and challenges, with Azabal and Bakri exuding a warm, gently crackling chemistry. Superb performances, sly humour, Virginie Surdej’s glowing photography and a strong throughline of social defiance make this a profoundly satisfying pleasure.