Soil

- Season 1

(2021)

First- generation Mororoccan immigrant Omar Boulasmoum started a funerary family business, repatriating deceased compatriots for Muslim burial in the old country. He now wants to retire and hand it over to his daughter and de facto- right hand Nadia and her eager, ambitious but gullible husband Rachid, for half, and son Ismael 'Smile', who doesn't even want the other half. Smile seeks to make his own fortune with his autochthonous Belgian buddy Jean-Baptiste 'JB', whose grand inventions never earn actual profits, like the 'pizza slicer' the bank refuses to invest in. ...

Ishmail is convinced his 'Moroccan soil at home' idea is the future, so he and JeanBaptiste, who records a promotion video, spread folders all over Molenbeek (a Brussels borough). They are thrown out the rest home where wealthy Taoufik Benallal resides, the first to scold them as a disgrace to the community, culminating in his sons dropping by 'to bury pa', actually deposing a canine corpse instead. It turns out a splendid excuse when the police checks up on security footage of their suspicious towed cars park intrusion. Meanwhile father Omar, assumed to be on haj (...

Rachid is delighted with his sycophantic free 'apprentice' autochthonous convert Brahim Le Soumis, who urgently needs some proof of employment for his parole file. Ismail's 'one off' burial, suddenly becomes a 'specialty of the firm' when Nadia smells a lucrative future as it's asked for by the family of just-deceased local football legend El Fasi. As they insist on the traditional short period, and Rachid finally baked the tiles as Nadia kept nagging while the first batch hardens against cemetery rules, there's no lore Morocooan soil. Smile and JB greedily accept to ...

Rachid is miserable, as he gets local community criticism about the unconventional alternative to repatriation, but Nadia is siding with Ishmail as he now brings in business, and expects him -in vain- to the imam's support. Desperate for his 'employment' certificate, free ex-con apprentice Brahim can't get through to either. Landlord Mario and his greedy, domineering wife Vanessa realized what the soil from their pool was used for and blackmail the boys: ten fitness machines or exposure. Alizee suggests striking a deal with family friend Vincent, who sells the things ...

Business is booming, so the Boulasmoum hope to expand and a mortuary is for sale, only they lack cash. Bank officer Geert Wellens is now eager to grant credit, but still demands collateral for the hefty sum. Ismail lies his father Omar is putting up the house, and dares not tell Nadia, so he and JB go to great lengths to receive Wellens for an inspection in the grand home of a client family on funeral voyage to Morocco. Smile and JB's in-living sister Alizée, whom he encourages in vain to finally embark on the world trip she's planning for years, grow closer as the ...

Ismael, JB and Nadia are confident they can pull off the mortuary acquisition by proving to the bank they handle 7 burials in a week. Tension rises as father Omar returns home unexpected and attends the funeral in imported earth of an old friend. The boys can barely pull it off as the adulterous mayor was blackmailed by the airport mortuary managers to have their cemetery permits refused indefinitely, requiring dirty tricks to get a plot to (re)use last minute by deceiving the gravediggers. Omar refuses to believe convert Brahim is a proper Muslim, Rcahid discovers ...

Rachid eagerly focuses all hopes on winning one of the regional Diwan Awards and prepares the reluctant family for the gala evening. Nadia gets paternally disowned Smile to delay his world tour with Alizee, after getting JB's uneasy blessing and refusal to join, to solve the cemetery permits problem. Bribing the Tunesian mayor with the late football star's family connection fails, so they wire-expose his disdain for their own, larger Moroccan community. Omar's Dutch flame Souad arrives and furiously dumps him when the family still isn't aware of their relationship, ...

Ishmail is furious that Omar betrayed his late mother by proposing to his Dutch flame, so rejects the wedding invitation and leaves 'for good'. JB helps him attempting to smuggle his mother's coffin home from Tangiers, but after Karim badly helps them, they get arrested. Omar flies in to the rescue, publicly slapping Smile 'shaming the family' while bailing the mates, but later they make up as JB helped Omar sneakily end the coffin home. Alizee no longer wants Ishmail to join her world tour, having hooked up with a cool Swedish girl. Rachid is delighted to run the ...