Adam

A winning, entertaining drama, Adam follows struggling (and very pregnant) Samia (Nessrine Erradi) as she begins staying with a cantankerous small-business owner named Abla (Loubna Azabal). It’s a familiar setup that’s employed to predominantly engaging effect by first-time filmmaker Maryam Touzani, as the director does an excellent job of initially establishing the two protagonists and the impoverished environs in which they toil – with, in terms of the former, both Erradi and Azabal inhabiting their fully-fleshed-out characters to an often spellbinding degree. There’s little doubt, as well, that the sporadic inclusion of crowd-pleasing elements perpetuates the compulsively watchable atmosphere, with the most obvious example of this the ongoing emphasis on a friendly local merchant with an obvious crush on the widowed Abla. And although the movie’s final stretch admittedly does drag a bit, Adam has long-since confirmed its place as a better-than-expected debut that sporadically does pack an impressive emotional punch (eg a sequence wherein Abla finally reveals the truth about a tragic incident from her past).

*** out of ****