“It is as if I was a child and I’ve passed a bakery with a lovely chocolate eclair in the window that I’ve never been allowed to have, and now finally I can,” the director said.

His is only the second Moroccan film chosen for the official selection at Cannes, after Abdelaziz Ramdani’s “Ames et rythmes” in 1962.

“Casablanca Beats”, the French-Moroccan director’s seventh feature, is about young people seeking an outlet through hip hop. It is set in Sidi Moumen, a rundown district made infamous in 2003 after a group of radicalised local youth carried out suicide bombings in the city, killing 33 people.

Ayouch is not new to the neighbourhood. His 2012 film “Horses of God”, inspired by a novel by Moroccan painter and author Mahi Binebine, followed two brothers from their childhood up to the day they decide to become suicide bombers, and used non-professional actors from the district.

He also shot scenes from his indie hit “Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets” there more than a decade earlier.

In 2014, Ayouch founded the Stars Cultural Centre in the deprived district, offering music, dance and other classes. The filmmaker said the centre provided the idea – and much of the cast – for the fictional “Casablanca Beats”.

“I attended some workshops and it was really incredible to see them dancing and to listen to their lyrics,” he recalled. “I wanted the whole world to hear what they have to say.”

The participation of “Casablanca Beats” at the Cannes festival, which runs until Saturday, has been widely welcomed in Morocco, in sharp contrast to his earlier film “Much Loved”, a candid take on prostitution in the country that triggered anger online and even death threats.

The film was shown at Cannes in 2015 but banned at home, where the authorities deemed it damaged the country’s image as well as being “an affront to moral values and Moroccan women”.