Qirat is loosely based around an oral family anecdote of a robbery that took place in the lush valley of Fez in northern Morocco during the 1980s. In the film, the events have been transposed to Ouarzazate, located on the edge of the Sahara Desert in central Morocco. Here the anecdote is reconstructed freely, over the course of a single Friday, shot solely during dawn, dusk and finally night.

Akin to the storytelling tradition of the Al-Halqa, which weaves together the fantastic and factual, the anecdote acts as a compass through Ouarzazate’s life and its history. From the Atlas Mountains into the city center, the anecdote connects the place’s history as a former film mecca for Hollywood, to its present as home to one of the world’s largest solar power plants.