The Free-Riders is a film that explores the thin boundary between documentary and fiction. It is the portrait of three men born in Morocco who each found their way to Europe at different moments in their lives: the filmmaker Mohamed Zineddaine and two actors he has collaborated with, Kader Herrada and Mehdi El Aarroubi.
Mohamed, Kader, and Mehdi intersect through scenes from films they made together in the past (Awakening – 2004, Do You Remember Adil? – 2008, Anger and The Healer – 2018), as well as through more direct encounters in the various cities where they now find themselves, as Casablanca, Paris, Bilbao, Bologna, and Madrid. They share memories of childhood and migration, along with moments of friendship and filmmaking.
Eventually, as he says goodbye to each of his friends, Mohamed finds himself exiled in Morocco — his native country, which he left many years before — due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Alone with his camera, a few stray cats, and a dog named Rosa, he faces his own limits and searches for new ways to survive as a filmmaker, reinventing new forms through which to create fiction.