Two young people encounter various strangers while spending time in a beach resort in Abdellah Taia’s sophomore feature.

Abdellah Taïa’s sophomore feature is described as “a queer ode to the seemingly carefree time of youth,” but it proves a little too carefree in its depiction of two young people whiling away time in the Moroccan beach resort that gives the film its title. Although boasting languidly sensual atmosphere to spare thanks to its setting and sexy, young lead performers, Cabo Negro, receiving its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, ultimately proves frustrating with its purposefully oblique narrative.

Eventually, different people start to show up, including a man who tells them he recently got out of prison after serving a three-year sentence and who stays as a guest. In the middle of the night, he shows up in the room Soundouss and Jaafar are sleeping in, asking if he could join them because he’s scared by the villa. The owner of the house later shows up as well, to check on things.

A woman and her young children arrive, returning Jonathan’s clothes that had been left for cleaning. The owner of the house returns, calling Soundouss and Jaafar dirty and ordering them to leave. And when Jaafar is finally able to reach Jonathan on the phone, things don’t go quite as he was expecting.

Presumably, we’re meant to admire the two main characters as free spirits, not bound by conventional morality and luxuriating in the power of their youthful sensuality. But despite the lead performers’ best efforts, they remain ciphers at best, as mysterious and inexplicable as the circumstances surrounding them. The director-screenwriter’s attempt to provide a surreal air of mystery about the non-appearance of Jaafar’s lover doesn’t add up to much; nor do the mildly absurdist episodes involving the subsidiary characters.

By the time it reaches its unsatisfying conclusion, we’ve lost patience with Cabo Negro despite its brief 76-minute running time. You’re left wondering how much it would cost to rent a house like the one in the film and exactly how far it is from the beach.