"where are you going moshe?" (imdb) is a moroccan film set against the backdrop of the jewish exodus of 1963. in the early 1960s most of what was once a substantial jewish population in morocco left the country, primarily going to israel. several factors spurred the emigration: the formation of the state of israel (and the decline in jewish-arab relations that followed), moroccan independence from france, the death of king mohammed V (who the jews of morocco viewed as their protector), and the campaign of zionist activists to get as many of the jews of the world as possible to move to israel.
set against such a serious historical backdrop, the plot is surprisingly lighthearted. meet mustapha, a moroccan who works in the only bar in a small moroccan town. the bar is owned by pierre, the last french resident of the town who is dying. mustapha has arranged to buy the bar off of pierre's heirs, allowing him to finally achieve his dream of owning his own business. but there's a problem, the religious fundamentalists of the town want mustapha's bar to be closed. the only thing saving the bar is a moroccan law forbidding local authorities from closing establishments that sell alcohol to non-muslims. that is, it saves the bar until all the jews of the town start to leave, depriving mustapha of most of his customer base as well as the legal loophole he requires to stay in business.
intertwined with mustapha's story is the story of shlomo, a jew who does not want to leave despite intense pressure from all directions. for much of the film shlomo resists inducements from his family, the "fixers" hired by the israeli government to facilitate the emigration of moroccan jews, and the muslim fundamentalists who see shlomo as the last obstacle towards closing mustapha's bar and reaching their dream of having a dry town. none of these "adversaries" are portrayed as particularly evil. it's a small town, they all know each other personally and get along with one another. the film portrays the pressures more as a clash of competing interests than anything personal or overtly bigoted, even though it does cause real pain for some of the people involved.
"moshe" is an unusual film for the arab world because it essentially is from the point of view of the jews and their friends. not that the film is particularly sympathetic to israel. instead, the film says that the departure of jews was real a loss for arab society. i don't want to reveal the ending, but the last line both goes a bit too far and raises an interesting issue of how the modern history of the arab world would be different if arab jews were still an important part of it.
