Hashish

Filmmaker Daniel Gräbner presents an in-depth look at the culture of hashish that dominates life in a North Moroccan village in this engrossing if lethargically-paced documentary following the growing, harvesting, and processing cycle of the crop. The feature opens during the harvest of the marijuana that will be turned into hash; the resin that results from the first sieving of the crop produces world-class hashish, much of which is intended for local consumption, while subsequent sievings form second- and third-rate hash, which is intended for sale to others (merriment abounds as buyers of lower grade hashish are parodied going through their elaborate tasting rituals before happily buying inferior product). Hashish is, as the liner notes say, the “basis and philosophy of” the local “social system,” as well as being the villagers' work and bartering currency, but even though the people seem generally content (many are also users who seem to exist in a constant cloud of introspection and hash smoke), some younger workers express the desire to leave and explore different lifestyles and career options (though they describe themselves as illiterate, these younger folks are media-savvy enough to deliver cogent discourse on the differences between their world and Europe and the United States). Presented mostly in French and Arabic with English subtitles, and buttressed with entrancing (if droning) local music on the soundtrack, Hashish is ultimately a bittersweet look at a bucolic subculture that exists uneasily with the outside world. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Tribby)