The French-born, Morocco based filmmaker and educator, Nabil Ayouch, has directed five features in the last decade and produced nearly a dozen others. Along the way, he’s distinguished himself as one of the most dynamic and gifted directors in the Arab world. From his heart-rending breakout Ali Zaoua, about the embroilment of Casablanca street kids in gang warfare to Much Loved, a deeply sympathetic portrait of prostitutes that was banned in Morocco due to its “contempt for moral values.”

Ayouch treads where no one else in the country would. Every film captures the struggle for outsiders—which include figure such as independent women, Jews, and even suicide bombers—to exist in an oppressive society. But despite their arresting realism, Ayouch’s films are not documentaries. They’re meticulously crafted dramas about identity, change and redemption. Although his work is undeniably political, denouncing the ills of Moroccan society without fear or favor, Ayouch privileges immersive storytelling and arresting visuals over any blanket statements. His latest film, Razzia, especially pulsates with humanism. Set in Casablanca, it depicts the Morocco of the last thirty years with brutal honesty. Interweaving glimpses into the lives of a wide array of outsiders—from a Berber schoolteacher to a young Jewish man to an aspiring singer grappling with his queer identity—the film chronicles the destinies of men and women longing for freedom and a greater sense of autonomy. A narratively and visually ambitious tone poem, the film explores unmistakably Moroccan themes even as it keeps its sights set firmly on a universal humanism. Screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Jewish Film Festival, Razzia was recently released in Morocco and France and will be traveling throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.