The CCME pavilion at the Rabat Book Fair on Sunday May 12, 2024 hosted a panel of two artists, novelist Hajar Azell (France) and filmmaker Hakim Belabbes (USA), who answered journalists Soundouss Chraïbi's questions on extending identity into artistic spaces.

The guests tried to describe their experience of the "in between", a state of mind " full of blur and constant movement back and forth, one foot towards oneself, and one foot towards the outside world". By creating in writing or film, Hakim Belabbes and Hajar Azell naturally embrace this movement "and see their native culture floating in their thoughts".

For Hajar Azell, the act of writing requires not only an emotional commitment, but also an intellectual one, since "there's a political dimension to it that you have to be aware of in order to create a new reality". She associates her identity, "which is not something static, with space, a parameter that is continuously changing, so as to be able to tell unhappy stories in cheerful words, because by changing space, we change both our backgrounds and our emotions".

For his part, director Hakim Belabbes describes filmmaking as a way of breaking free from harsh reality.

When he moved to the United States, he thought he was simply changing his social status, but as he evolved, he came to realize that he "will never be the same person who left, and the reality he wanted to change was his main source of inspiration".

The richness and diversity of his Moroccan culture is the principal hallmark of his "unique voice and imprint", expressed in the most basic gestures of his profession: "even the field of my camera shots was deeply inspired by the culture I come from".

CCME