Each year, celebrities descend on Morocco to attend the Marrakech International Film Festival, enjoy warm weather, luxurious resorts and laud the power of cinema.

In her latest film, “The Blue Caftan,” Moroccan director Maryam Touzani delicately weaves overlapping tales, both traditional and largely taboo in her country and its region.

Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, whose drama “Lingui” has been a standout of the first week of the Cannes Film Festival, has a unique relationship as a filmmaker to his native country of Chad.