It is possible that cinema today is experiencing prosperity and development and is being recreated and renewed—but for distributors, producers, directors, and festivals, it is renewed! Not for me; for me, the door starts to close and the light turns off.

Title: Fouad Is Not a Criminal: A Chaotic Morality

Editors: Sheyda Aisha Khaymaz & Angela Burdon

New York, NY – Lungs Project announces the release of Fouad Is Not a Criminal: A Chaotic Morality, a deeply personal multimedia project by Moroccan artist Ziad Naitaddi that documents an extraordinary story that takes place in a humble DVD shop in Rabat’s medina. For twenty years, Fouad Beniouri, a DVD pirate, has been a quiet force in bringing art-house movies to Morocco, selling the works of cinematic giants such as Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Aki Kaurismäki for less than a dollar per film.

This intimate project arises out of Naitaddi’s own life. As an 18-year-old business student, the artist’s first encounter with Fouad’s curated collection completely altered his life trajectory. “Fouad saved my life,” Naitaddi reflects. “This ‘criminal’ gave me the chance to discover my passion for visual storytelling.” The project traces both men’s stories in tandem: Fouad’s decades-long commitment to cultural preservation and Naitaddi’s own evolution from a university dropout to an internationally acclaimed artist.

Through film stills, photography, reflective prose, and found footage interventions, Fouad Is Not a Criminal: A Chaotic Morality navigates the thorny terrain wherein cultural resistance clashes with legal constraints. The project shows that Fouad, in many ways, operates more as a curator than a vendor, selecting films he believes in despite financial foils. For decades, his tiny shop has welcomed renowned filmmakers, including Philippe Faucon and Elia Suleiman, meanwhile his home brims with archives spilling over corridors, bathrooms, and bedrooms.

“I challenge you to find an independent film theater in Rabat, which is considered the cultural capital of Morocco, that shows, for example, Tarkovsky films,” Fouad maintains. And although Moroccan and international law considers him a criminal, he sees himself as providing a vital service to film students completing doctoral research and enabling access to cinema that remains otherwise unavailable through official channels. Fouad Is Not a Criminal: A Chaotic Morality prompts salient questions regarding authorial property, access to arts, and the dissemination of knowledge through clandestine channels that official institutions cannot or will not support.

Naitaddi employs multiple approaches throughout the book: montaging over film stills to question image ownership, creating reverse remakes in dialogue with filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Uzak, and documenting the unceremonious poetry of Fouad’s movements through his domestic spaces entirely given over to cinema memorabilia. The result is both a portrait and a meditation on cultural preservation, artistic mentorship, and the moral valences of piracy in contexts where legal access remains restricted.

Fouad Is Not a Criminal: A Chaotic Morality is published on June 19, 2026 as a full-color, perfect-bound limited edition of 30 copies, available for purchase from our online store.

About the artist Ziad Naitaddi is a Moroccan artist who lives and works in Rabat. Naitaddi’s practice often extends beyond the act of photographing itself. He revisits archives, collects written and oral testimonies, and even re-engages with his own photographs years after their development. He refers to this approach as “photographic exhumation”—a process that allows him to explore narrative possibilities beyond the camera. In his recent projects, Naitaddi explores migration and its emotional complexities—distance from one’s homeland, exile, integration, exclusion—viewing these as spaces of layered encounters. He forms close relationships with his subjects, seeking to understand how migration shapes their mental and emotional states over time. Aware that his work is filtered through his own perspective, he also reflects on the construction and evolution of his own identity. Naitaddi’s work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including The Center of Contemporary Photographic Art – Villa Pérochon (France), the 13th Dakar Biennale (Senegal), Le Cube – independent art room (Morocco), Museo Nazionale MAXXI (Italy), Fotogalerie Wien - WUK (Austria), La Condition Publique (France), Sharjah Biennial 17’ (UAE), among others.

This project was supported by l’Institut Français du Maroc in collaboration with Le Cube-independent art room.

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Cover Image © Fouad Beniouri and Ziad Naitaddi, 2024

Opening quote © Fouad Beniouri, 2024