Mustapha Derkaoui

Mostafa Derkaoui (; 12 November 1944 – 20 August 2026) was a Moroccan film director and screenwriter who made revolutionary and socially-engaged films.

Background Derkaoui was born in Oujda, Morocco on 12 November 1944. In the early 1960s, Derkaoui studied philosophy in Casablanca and wrote plays. One of his first plays was banned for political reasons. For 8 months in 1963, he studied at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques in Paris. After returning to Morocco for a short period of time, Derkaoui made his first short film "The Four Walls" which is now lost.

Early career During his time at the Łódź Film School, Derkaoui directed four short films of different genres. He also wrote a thesis titled “The role of cinema in transforming and elevating consciousness”.

Films About Some Meaningless Events About Some Meaningless Events , an independent film exploring the role of cinema in Morocco, was released in 1974 and subsequently banned by Moroccan authorities. In its presentation of conversations with people from different segments of society, it is similar in concept to Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch' film Chronique d’un été. The film was believed to have disappeared until negatives were found in an archive in Barcelona in 2016.

The Museum of Modern Art described About Some Meaningless Events as "an audacious blend of drama, documentary, and improvisation," embodying a radical approach to art, politics, and social relations also found in journals such as Souffles-Anfas.

Other Derkaoui films include two collective films he contributed towards (Cinders of the Vineyard (1975), The Gulf War... What Next? (1992)) as well as Les Beaux Jours de Chahrazade (1982), Je(u) au passé (1994), Les Sept Portes de la nuit (1994), Casablanca de nuit (2003), and Casablanca de jour (2004).