Belgian-Moroccan filmmaker Karima Saïdi delves into the rich tapestry of migration stories, crafting a cinematic dialogue that bridges generations and cultures. Through her documentaries, Saïdi explores themes of memory, identity, and coexistence, offering a poignant reflection on the shared narratives that connect the living with their ancestral roots. Karima Saïdi / Ph. Alias NB ‹ › Telling migration stories means extending the presence of one's ancestors by preserving their memory, keeping it alive and making it one's own, like a living legacy that must be nurtured and that becomes an endlessly generous form of capital. It means giving pride of place to a family narrative spanning two shores, recounting the diversities woven yesterday that shape those of today and will enrich those of tomorrow. This is the very spirit that Belgian-Moroccan filmmaker Karima Saïdi brings to her cinema, built around the intimate bonds between generations shaped by migration. Initially working as an editor and script supervisor for other filmmakers, including Jawad Rhalib, Karima Saïdi has for several years been engaged in a long-term documentary approach. This process now allows her to portray migration through the lens of anchoring and rootedness in the host country, which becomes an extension of reference points for new binational generations. In doing so, she reconnects with one of her core creative territories, nourished by a shared cinematic culture with her Tangier-born parents, her two brothers, and her older sister, in the Brussels where she was born and raised. A dual culture lived without barriers «I watched a lot of films with my elders, who are real cinema lovers. On French television, the Cinéma de minuit program also introduced me to auteur films. I went to movie theaters a lot too, my earliest memory is Le Prado, in Molenbeek. I must have been five or six years old, with my mother and my brother. We watched Lawrence of Arabia, The Young Girls of Rochefort, but also Egyptian films, in Ixelles», Karima Saïdi recalled in her interview with Yabiladi. Enchanted by the artistic world she discovered alongside her brothers and sister, she fondly remembers «art books, painting, classical music, jazz, rock, and of course cinema». «I grew up sharing all of this with them, while with my mother I immersed myself in what defines our Moroccan culture: festivals and age-old traditions, baptisms, weddings, women baking together», the filmmaker tells us, explaining that she experienced these multiple cultural dimensions without conflict. Karima Saïdi and her mother / Ph. Karima Saïdi «I belong to the second generation of immigrants, and what I find deeply joyful is that people always did everything together, in communion but without voyeurism», she says. «That dynamic was very reassuring. With my dual culture today, I feel proudly shaped by a popular, grassroots education. I love talking to people and spending time in neighborhoods when I'm in Morocco. That connection is essential», she affirms. Extending this eclectic universe, Karima Saïdi pursued artistic studies at the Higher Institute of Arts (INSAS) in Brussels before turning to cinema. She was immediately drawn to writing reality. «I realized that documentary editing offered greater creative freedom, with real structural challenges», she explains. Curious to later explore fiction, she worked on feature-film scripts before moving on to directing. With her first documentary, Dans la maison (In the House), Karima Saïdi paid an intimate tribute to her mother, constructing a dialogue that questions memory and her grandmother's journey from Morocco to Belgium. In her second film, Ceux qui veillent (Those Who Watch), she deepens her reflection on migration narratives with nuance and subtlety, offering a deeply human look at the dialogue between the living and the dead within Brussels' multi-faith cemetery. Documentary filmmaking as living memory The cemetery, where her mother is buried, was the first of its kind in Belgium. Made up of archives, photographs, and sound recordings, the first documentary ends with a scene set in this cemetery, which Karima Saïdi then uses as the opening of her second film. Screened in Morocco at the 22nd Marrakech International Film Festival (FIFM 2025), and later in Rabat with the Circle of Belgian Graduates (CLB) and the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME), Ceux qui veillent is conceived as «a story of watchers», a place where non-Christians can be buried in accordance with their rites. «Ceux qui veillent» by Karima Saïdi Filmed as a genuine place of life rather than death, this space of coexistence reveals a peaceful neighborhood where Muslims, Jews, Orthodox Christians, and Catholics meet. They interact, speak to their deceased loved ones, and engage in dialogue with them, creating an inclusive environment. It is this diversity, and its possibility, that Karima Saïdi sought to portray, offering an expanded vision of family heritage, personal narrative, and multiculturalism lived in harmony. «I became interested in this place because, while she was still alive, my mother asked me to look into where she could be buried in Belgium in accordance with her rites. That's how I discovered this cemetery. When she passed away, we buried her there, and that's when I discovered her new neighbors», the filmmaker told Yabiladi. «I realized that this cemetery is a place of life, just like a neighborhood. The idea of 'watchers' unfolds on many levels, among the staff, the visitors who share offerings, sing, and express their rituals, making the space incredibly alive. And there are also the watchers who are our deceased loved ones, with whom we continue to maintain a relationship through inherited gestures». «Bringing offerings to this cemetery becomes a way of sharing a meal with a deceased loved one among family members. Then that gesture is extended by sharing with others, creating a communion between the living and the dead, in tribute to those who have passed and in consideration of those who remain», she adds, for whom these practices embody a serene way of preserving memory that transcends cultures and generations. «Ceux qui veillent» by Karima Saïdi A bridge between first migrants and their grandchildren Karima Saïdi also situates memory work within a continuum that spans all ages. «In my previous film, I created an intimate dialogue between a daughter and her mother around exile and its consequences, and around fading memory, as my mother suffered from Alzheimer's. Here, I chose to start from her grave and open with her granddaughter Mona, who speaks about her last memory of her grandmother while she was still alive, before going on to meet others», she explains, illustrating the dynamic vision anchoring her narrative. By meeting the living through their relationships with the dead, Karima Saïdi further extends her reflection on exile and rootedness. «Each grave becomes a trace of a lived experience and a heritage, through photographs, inscriptions, rituals», she says. «Everything leaves a trace in this place, forming a history of immigration written through this territory». Along the way, the filmmaker frames the migration narrative, intergenerational and multicultural, through a distinctly female lens. «My niece Mona, my mother's granddaughter, represents the third generation, a product of cultural mixing. All these cultures coexist within her in a completely peaceful way. It felt right to start from that point, through the new generation, to open this path toward a new territory where intimate codes are preserved, with forms and expressions that are diverse», she adds. «The portraits of the people I meet in this cemetery embody both the singular and the universal. Everyone has their own way of being and allows themselves to be who they are in their relationship with others. It is a space where everything is possible. In light of what is happening in the world today, this film raises a question close to my heart: how do we continue to build a shared society while being different and connected to one another's memories?» Ph. Karima Saïdi Between the lines, Karima Saïdi questions «our own traditions and how we maintain them while adding something of our own». «It's possible because we allow ourselves to be in relationship with the other», she explains, adding that she was «deeply moved» by this aspect while working on the documentary, which itself stands as an offering to the legacy of migrating ancestors.
