On 19 April 2025, Atoman, the first Moroccan superhero film, was presented at the BIFFF – Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, marking a historic moment for North African cinema. Following its world premiere on 13 April in Casablanca, the film will be released in Moroccan cinemas on 23 April. Directed and co-produced by Anouar Moatassim, Atoman tells the story of Hakim Imlil, an orphan who discovers he possesses superhuman powers linked to his Amazigh and Arab heritage. After being arrested for hacking, Hakim is recruited by the DGSN, Morocco’s national security agency, to combat cybercrime. His main adversary is David Lockham, a corrupt banker who gains extraordinary powers.
Collettivo Chiaroscuro interviewed cinematographer Luca Coassin CCS:
You’ve worked in Morocco on several occasions, undoubtedly discovering some extraordinary locations. Would you like to tell us about them?
In Morocco, you only need to drive for a few hours to go from winter landscapes at -10°C to summer settings above +40°C, and the costume department has to quickly adapt the actors’ wardrobes. There are several types of desert, each with its own visual personality. You start with the classic Merzouga, the most popular one, known for its iconic sand dunes – the same where Paolo Carnera, CCS President, shot Io Capitano – then move on to the more rugged, stony desert of Erfoud, chosen for the scene with the biggest real explosion ever filmed, in Spectre (007). Near the Algerian border, the landscape takes on bluish and white hues over black stone expanses, while just outside Marrakech you pass through red-tinted deserts. In Ouarzazate, Christopher Nolan shot some scenes for his recent The Odyssey. If you’re happy with smaller portions of desert, you only need to reach the yellow dunes just outside Essaouira, overlooking the sea: it was there, about a year ago, that I had the pleasure of working with Alessandro Chiodo CCS, who was the cinematographer on a series produced for the Middle East. And to end this journey, you can head far south to the beaches of Dakhla, where a black-and-white desert quite literally dives into the ocean.
What are the defining features of Atoman?
In Arab culture, embarking on a superhero narrative not set in the past is undoubtedly something meaningful. It shifts the perspective: for the first time, there’s no longer a need for overseas superpowers. These superheroes speak Amazigh and embody a distinct identity, even within a genre that has traditionally relied almost exclusively on foreign storytelling – that of Marvel. With Atoman, the audience can experience a new kind of wonder. In films of this kind, it’s common to shoot in studios, but here – also for budgetary reasons – we brought the set into the real world, sometimes under extreme conditions: 50 degrees in the shade in the desert, or filming at altitudes over 3,000 metres. We travelled over 4,000 km across Morocco, from the Rif to the beaches of Dakhla, from the Atlas Mountains to the deserts of Merzouga and Erfoud, all the way to the caves of Friouato. It wasn’t just about technical challenges: it was the context that shaped the way the actors moved, how the light touched their faces, how the story was told. The Noor III solar power station, the kasbahs, the granaries reached only by mule – every location deeply influenced the way I worked.
What was your cinematographic approach?
Each location had a strong, unique identity. My approach was to let myself be inspired by the place – by its scent, its natural light, the air. Every scene was born from a dialogue with the environment. At a time when everything can be recreated with green screens and AI, filming in real locations gave us an energy I hope will come across on screen.
Could you elaborate on this deep connection you have with locations?
A location is like an invisible score that guides us. I’m not just talking about light, but about vibrations, memory, lived experience. A place forces you to engage with reality, and that affects the actor, the director, every department. Of course, AI is an extraordinary resource, and technological progress allows us to create increasingly precise images – but cinema is still a collective, physical, sensorial art form. And the distance between the foot pressing into the earth and the emotion captured in a scene is, for now, something that can’t be replicated by a prompt generated by an algorithm – nor the other way around.
