The documentary festival Visions du Lille, to be held in Nyon, Switzerland from April 17th to 26th, will spotlight the work of Moroccan visual artist and videographer Meryem Bennani, with the Swiss premiere of her film Bouchera, co-directed by Oriane Balki.
On April 24th, Bennani will discuss his approach in a public conversation with artist and filmmaker Valentin Nuheim, as well as a presentation of his film and video work.
Bennani is known for his art installations and hybrid projects, which feature “a light-hearted combination of references to globalized pop culture and expressions of Maghreb history and culture,” the festival said. She has exhibited at prestigious venues such as MoMA PS1, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Louis Vuitton Foundation, and most recently the Prada Foundation.
“We are delighted to welcome Meryem Bennani, an artist with an established reputation in contemporary art, and to present her remarkable first feature film and seven short films. Her conversations around hybrid, pop and political practice will happily expand the range of possibilities for this 2026 edition,” commented Vision du Lille Artistic Director Emily Buges.
During the 2020 lockdown, Bennani teamed up with Burki to create 2 Lizards, an eight-episode miniseries about two anthropomorphic lizards wandering New York in lockdown. The fable, which will be broadcast on Instagram, weaves together 3D animation and non-fiction sequences to “effectively capture the mood of lockdown, from general apathy to widespread anxiety and solidarity protests,” the festival said.
Started in 2018 and completed in 2022, Life on the Caps: Trilogy in Single Channel revolves around Fiona, a CGI crocodile and resident of CAPS, a fictional island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. In CAPS, teleportation replaced air travel.
Bennani uses animation techniques and live-action footage to construct a dystopian world where the state imprisons immigrants who have illegally teleported to escape the world of CAPS, offering “an alternative representation of immigration that counters the hegemonic and habitual misery-based media discourse,” the festival said.
In 2025, Bennani collaborated with Burki on his first feature film, Boukra, whose original soundtrack was also composed by artist Flavian Berger. The film combines 3D animation, anthropomorphism, and documentary material to create a surreal and colorful world reminiscent of a video game. The film tells the story of Bouchra, a Moroccan coyote filmmaker living in New York, who investigates the impact of homosexuality on his mother, Aicha, a cardiologist in Casablanca. Through this hybrid work of autobiography and fiction, the filmmakers offer a “tender exploration of queer culture and the complexities of mother-daughter relationships.”
Alongside his film work, Bennani has also created several art installations, such as the recent ‘Sole Crushing’, which have received attention from the public and critics alike. The installation, unveiled at Fondazione Prada as part of the 2024-2025 “For My Best Family” exhibition, brings together around 200 pairs of flip-flops and tap shoes, “performing music somewhere between a symphony and a popular uprising, exploring questions of communal life and the place of the individual in the community,” the festival says.
The full program for the 57th edition of Visions du Réel will be published on March 25th.
