Programs Calendar Films

Nadia, a young Moroccan emigre, returns from Paris to Fez to visit her dying father. At his funeral, she is overcome by the voice of Karina chanting the Koran. A powerful friendship develops between the two women as they decide to turn the father's palace into a Muslim women's shelter. A Door to the Sky is a Sufi tale told in a metaphoric language. It is also the first North African film to address the social and economic changes as proposed by a spiritual Muslim woman on a quest to preserve her cultural and religious identity

Filmmaker Farida Ben Lyazid was born in Tanger, Morocco in 1948.   Ben Lyazid earned her degree in film and literature from the University of Paris in 1974. Since then, she has worked as a screenwriter and director and has been awarded international honors and nominations for her 3 films.  Ben Lyazid is one of the very few working female directors from North Africa and at varying stages of her career she has been the only one from her native Morocco.