In a communiqué issued yesterday, the National Library of Morocco reacted to reports accusing it of authorizing the shooting of an «immoral» scene in its facilities. Further inquiries show that the scene was from a German comedy movie. The National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco (BNRM) announced Wednesday that a «thorough investigation» has been opened to determine the circumstances surrounding a foreign movie, believed to have been shot in one of the library's facilities. In its communiqué, relayed by MAP news agency, BNRM replies to reports indicating that the movie contained an «erotic scene» shot in the library located in Rabat. «Contrary to fallacious allegations… the movie was granted an authorization by the former direction of the library in August 2016», explains the same communiqué, stressing that BNRM is determined to protect the values and ethics it conveys. While the national library denied responsibility, Moroccan media platforms rushed in relaying the communiqué issued yesterday without naming the movie or referring to the scene in question. Achkayen's scoop Digging into the story, Yabiladi came across the first media platform to speak about the said movie. In an article published on the 27th of April, Arabic-language newspaper Achkayen wrote about the scene believed to have been shot inside the library. The newspaper explains it's a German film and that a source from the library confirmed to Achkayen that the scene took place in August 2016. The platform was the only one to put online the video containing the infamous scene writing : «the shocking clip shows a man taking a plastic sexual organ out of his pants to urinate in a tube for a drug test». Achkayen described the scene as «immoral» and «shocking», and preferred to blur the actor's private parts without disclosing the movie's title. The photo put by Achkayen./Ph. Achkayen To get more information, Yabiladi contacted Achkayen's journalist. «A source from the library contacted me and told me about the movie. I worked on the article, blurred the shocking scene and published it», he proudly told Yabiladi insisting that «BNRM's communiqué confirms what we wrote». Yabiladi then reached Mansour Badri, a Moroccan actor who participated to the movie and played the role of the policeman assisting the lead actor while «urinating». Hesitating at the beginning to answer our questions, Badri confirmed to Yabiladi that he was part of the movie shot in Rabat. The actor, however, couldn't remember the name or the producer of the movie. «I appeared in one scene which shows the German actor urinating for a drug test, it was not pornographic at all», he stated. It is just a comedy movie A five-minute research on the Internet allowed Yabiladi to get further information about the controversial movie. In fact, the German film is called Lommbock. The latter is a comedy movie produced by Kasbah Films Tangier and directed by Christian Zubert. Furthermore, the movie appears on a list published by the Moroccan cinematographic center reporting the list of foreign movies granted the green light to shoot in the Kingdom. The movie is, in fact, the sequel to a first one released in 2001. It narrates the story of a German man who lives in Dubai and who consumed hashish. Forced to do a drug test he used a trick by wearing «a fake organ full of urine» to hide the fact that he was consuming drugs.
