Horses of God

A drama set in a slum on the outskirts of Casablanca, and based on the horrific 2003 bombing (where 12 young men attacked multiple targets and left 45 dead), Horses of God is more a character study of children growing up without hope than it is a portrait of terrorists-in-training. Yachine and Nabil, inseparable friends, fall under the influence of Yachine’s violent older brother, Hamid, after the latter is released from prison on drug charges, now a newly-minted Islamic fundamentalist. These are street kids from poor families where everyday violence, mental illness, corruption, and dope-dealing compete with fantasies of escaping to Western Europe to earn scads of money or dreams of making it as a professional soccer player. They are subject to the lure of religious fanatics who blame their misfortune on “the imperialist Zionist conspiracy” and offer a “community of new brothers” to those who will submit to the discipline of martyrdom.