Marrakchi studied at Lyautey High School, a French high school in
Casablanca. She holds a Master's degree in Film and Audiovisual Studies from
Paris III University. She assisted the director on various films and directed her first short film in 2000,
L’Horizon perdu. Two documentaries later (
Femmes en royaume chérifien and
Derrière les portes du hammam in 2001), another short film,
Deux cents dirhams, was presented at the Namur International Francophone Film Festival in 2002. Her first feature film,
Marock (2005), was produced in 2004 and screened in the
Un Certain Regard section at the
2005 Cannes Film Festival. It portrays the privileged youth of Casablanca, with their Westernized customs, but confronted by the prejudices of traditional society when a first love brings a young Muslim woman and a young Jewish man together. Her second feature film,
Rock the Casbah (2013), had its premiere at the Special Presentation section in the
2013 Toronto International Film Festival. In another personal tale about her native Casablanca, starring Arab popular actors
Nadine Labaki,
Hiam Abbass and
Omar Sharif. Her upcoming feature film,
Strawberries, will follow the
Moroccan diaspora in Spain. == Personal life ==