In the vast expanse of desert, East of Atlas Mountains in Morocco, seasonal rain and snow once supported livestock, but now the drought seems to never end. Hardly a blade of grass can be seen, and families travel miles on foot to get water from a muddy hole in the ground. Yet the children willingly ride donkeys and bicycles or walk for miles across rocks to a “school of hope” built of clay. Following both the students and the teachers in the Oulad Boukais Tribe’s community school for over three years, ‘School of Hope’ shows students Mohamed, Miloud, Fatima, and their classmates, responding with childish glee to the school’s altruistic young teacher, Mohamed.
Each child faces individual obstacles—supporting their ageing parents; avoiding restrictions from relatives based on traditional gender roles—while their young teacher makes do in a house with no electricity or water. The Oulad Boukais Tribe is just one of many rural communities worldwide struggling to establish adequate schooling for their children. ‘School of Hope’ conveys the passion and commitment of the tribe in securing academic opportunities for their children, despite the roadblocks of their environment and the apparent indifference of their government in this intimate and charming portrait of optimism in the harshest of conditions.