The cyclops extra of Sans bruit, les figurants du désert (Noiseless, Desert Extras). Courtesy of Haut les Mains Productions

Much of the fascinating Sans bruit, les figurants du désert (Noiseless, Desert Extras) centers on actors who have largely gone unseen in the Moroccan film industry—the ones who appear on-screen for just a few seconds or are among the army of extras in crowd scenes. In a series of highly personal interviews, they talk about how they got into acting, what parts they’ve played, and other biographical information. Sometimes, the film’s directors will even give them a prompt, allowing them to show off their range for the camera.

The interview sequences are visually striking, due to a combination of tight framing around the actors’ faces and the stark lighting that draws our attention to every movement of their eyes. For their part, the performers reward the attention with performances of great verisimilitude. The film takes turns with a diverse cross-section of actors, the most memorable of which includes a newcomer who talks excitedly about his acting ambitions and whose relative naiveté sharply compared to the world-weariness of his colleagues.

Directors Gilles Lepore, Michal Madracki, and Maciej Madracki intercut these scenes with profiles of other film industry workers, who also have mostly thankless jobs. A production assistant takes headshots of men and women off the street, who have queued up seeking work as extras; a craftsman makes pieces of fake scenery and drives them to the set atop his car; and perhaps most memorably, a fellow plays the cyclops in a swords-and-sandals epic (see photo above), and whose face is hidden beneath prosthetic make-up. He doesn’t act so much as raise his arms on cue; even his monstrous roars are dubbed over.

Morocco is as much a character as any of the extras or workers. There are breathtaking shots of the landscape outside the city of Ouarzazate, where all the production scenes take place, as well as nighttime sequences shot from the perspective of a motorcycle driving from place to place, in which streets and public squares come off as shadowy and mysterious. Due to its overall lack of sentimentality, the film seems less a love letter to the movies and more an essay on the importance of the industry for this country. It’s an undeniably unique behind-the-scenes look.

Sans bruit, les figurants du desert screened as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s Doc Fortnight series.