The Blue Caftan: Superb performances offset the glitches in this delicate romantic drama

The central character in the second feature from the Moroccan writer-director Maryam Touzani is a maalem, a master tailor who painstakingly embroiders the traditional ceremonial gowns of the title. “It’s a dying art,” Halim (Salem Bakri) explains to his young apprentice, Youssef (Ayoub Missioui), expressing a sentiment that chimes with several impatient customers. The embroidery dictates the pace of this slow-burning drama – a premiere at Un Certain Regard in Cannes last year – as it probes love in many guises.

The closeted Halim is dedicated to his bossy, show-running wife, Mina (Lubna Azabal), despite his visits to the local hammam for anonymous sexual encounters with other men. Mina is concerned by Halim’s relationship with Youssef, an unspoken, delicate romance that blossoms just as Mina herself is fading. She has, we soon learn, given up her fight against breast cancer, and her final days are punctuated by dancing, laughter and acceptance.

She remains a formidable presence and businesswoman. On a night out with her husband, she smokes and leaps to her feet when a goal is scored on television. When the couple are later accosted by a policeman, he’s given quite an earful.

The love triangle is a little too convenient, unruffled and pretty. Halim and Youssef’s romance is tasteful, sensual and a tad unrealistic. Save for a scolding over a piece of pink silk, Mina’s blessing is assured. The garment that Halim works on throughout the film – the caftan is arguably the real star of the picture – is a heavy metaphor for all its delicate needlework.

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A triumvirate of superb performances and the warmth of Maryam Touzani and Nabil Ayouch’s screenplay offset the clumsier tropes. Virginie Surdej’s cinematography bathes daylit scenes in golden light to match the thread Halim uses on his petroleum-blue creation.