Netflix-based series ‘Soil’ is a Belgian drama. It follows the story of a young man who tries to make a business out of selling Moroccan soil to people who would like to bury their dead family members in it.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
The series starts with young Ismael Boulasmoum (Yassine Ouaich) witnessing his mother’s burial. The voice of older Ismael is narrating the entire incident.
He talks about how his mother wished to be buried in Belgium to be closer to her family, instead of her native country Morocco. But when she dies, her body is sent away to Morocco and buried there. It is a tradition when Moroccans die, they are repatriated.
His father, Omar (Ben Hamidou), had a company named “Assurance Omar” that handles repatriation. As the year passes, his sister Nadia (Ahlaam Teghadouini) and her husband Rachid (Said Boumazoughe) help Omar run the business. Rachid wants to turn this business into the McDonalds of repatriation.
Ismael shares that he always wanted to get rich without working too hard. His bestfriend Jean-Baptiste (Ward Kerremans) had the same sentiments. Ismael is then seen pitching an idea for ‘pizza scissors’ to a loan person for 10,000 euros. The man is not impressed and asks Ismael to leave. Both Omar and JB are upset.
Omar wants to see his entire family before he leaves for his Mecca trip and calls for a gathering. Meanwhile, Rachid shares his plans to replace the tiles of the company with other tiles he ordered from Morocco.
Omar tells them he is retiring and leaves 50% of his business to Rachid and Nadia and the remaining 50% to Ismael. Rachid thinks it’s unfair because Ismael has never taken it seriously or worked for the company.
Nadia sends Ismael to drive a dead client’s furniture to Morocco. Ismael overhears a couple having trouble in the repatriation of their father’s body and offers them to take them along with that furniture. They stop at a gas station and go to the convenience store, but the trailer and the body are missing when they come out.
Meanwhile, Rachid’s tile parcel arrives, and he realizes that he has been scammed. All the boxes are filled with soil. The couple decides that they no longer want to bury their father’s body in Morocco and asks Ismael to bring it back.
After a long search, Ismael and JB find the truck in some yard. They now have to bring it back to Brussels. There’s a destitute between the deceased’s family over the burial site. Ismael tries to stop the fight and accidentally stumbles upon the boxes of Moroccan soil. He comes up with an idea to use the soil for burying the dead body.
Ismael thinks that this idea of burying dead bodies in Moroccan soil in Brussels has excellent business potential and shares it with JB. They both set off trying to plan and advertise their new business.
Within a small frame of time, Ismael’s business becomes popular and is the entire firm’s speciality. Furthermore, they get nominated for an award. Because of this, Ismael wants to expand the business and tries to secure the funds for the same.
There are also frequent fights between him and Ranchid over customers. Omar is forced to return from his trip after the occurrence of a tragic event. This stirs some drama in the family.
If you have any doubts about the ending, here’s a full breakdown.
Soil ending explained in detail (Episode 8: Nejma):
A second lover?
Ismael is done with that business for life and swears he’ll never step in ‘Assurance Omar’ again. He is out with his girlfriend, Alizee, when someone recognizes him and asks for a photo. Meanwhile, Omar reveals to Rachid that the Mecca trip was a lie and he is dating a Dutch lady. Still, Rachid doesn’t hear any of that.
Nadia meets with Ismael and tells him that client is suing the company for 10,000 euros because they called off the burial. He tells her that he is going on a trip abroad with Alizee.
Souad, Omar’s Dutch lady, arrives there. She stumbles across Nadia and is upset that their father hasn’t told them about her. Omar arrives at the scene, and Souad leaves angrily. He follows her and tells her that he wants to marry her but she still leaves.
Nadia gets Ismael to help her. They meet Mr Mayor and he tells them he’ll see what he can do. He angrily insults Moroccans before kicking them out. Ismael manages to record all of that. He plays the recording on a speaker on the street. Moroccans are very upset about it. There’s an uprising and they manage to bury the dead body in Moroccan soil.
The award ceremony
Omar finally introduces Souad to Nadia and Rachid. They go to the award ceremony together. Nadia is not happy with the new addition to the family. Souad tries to angrily leave the table, put off by Nadia’s hostile nature but Omar stops her.
After a lot of buildups, the viewers, along with the Boulasmoum family, find out that they have won the award. The couple excitedly rushes to the stage to collect the award. Nadia starts speaking about how her mother had inspired this business and everyone claps.
Ismael, Alizee and JB are at the airport, ready to leave for their trip. But just as they were submitting their passports, JB comes rushing in and informs them that they’d won the award and received 20 grand as cash prizes. He asks the security person to cancel the ticket and tells them they can now fly in the private plane.
Alizee is not happy with it. Ismael tries to explain it to her, but she is upset and decides to go there alone. Ismael promises that he’ll come to find her.
Ismael goes to the award ceremony and finds out about Souad. His father tells him the truth and gives him their wedding invitation card. Ismael isn’t happy and leaves. He decides to travel to his hometown Tangiers.
Finally at peace
Rachid is made aware that someone wants to buy their business for 500,000 euros. He says that he can’t make the decision so soon because it is emotional for both Nadia and Ismael. He tells them he’ll need a couple of days to get everyone on board since he only owns 25% of business on papers.
Meanwhile, Nadia and Rachid find out that Ismael had withdrawn 20 grand from the bank account and think he is running away with the cash. Souad approaches Nadia and invites her to come for dinner at her place. Nadia gets mad and declines.
She confronts Omar for ignoring the wish of their dead mother and breaking the promise he made to her. He defends by saying that his hands were tied.
Ismael is seen digging his mother’s grave and bringing it back to Brussels. But the person who was supposed to help them smuggle the body across the border ditches them. They decide to call Karim, seeing that he has a van.
While they were getting away with the body, a police car chases them. They are detained in the police situation and soon, Ismael’s entire family finds out about it. Nadia decides to travel to Morocco to save her brother and asks Brahim to keep an eye on Rachid. Omar joined them.
They reach Morocco and rescue Ismael and JB. Everyone is mad with them. But with some help, they are finally able to transport the body back to Brussels.
Alizee finally calls Ismael back. She tells him that she has found this Swedish person and is backpacking with her. He informs her that he’ll join her soon but she replies that she wants to continue this trip alone.
Rachid tells Ismael about selling the business and buying new and bigger land. They go to pick up their mother’s coffin and realize that Brussels Airport Mortuary is the one who had made the offer to buy the company. They are informed that the casket isn’t there and after they have given a thought to their offer, Ismael can come and collect it.
Ismael, Rachid and Nadia make a plan to get the body back. Rachid tells the two ladies that Ismael is ready to talk with them about the deal and they should come and visit him tonight.
They go for the meeting. But their worker realizes that there is nobody in the coffin Rachid just delivered. He calls the owners to inform them about it, but before he can get a word out, Brahim comes and hits him on the head, making him lose consciousness. One of the two ladies thinks that something is wrong and decides to run back to the office to check.
Meanwhile, Ismael and JB finally manage to get the body. But while they are looking for her custom documents, the police arrive. Brahim tries to create a diversion. The police detain him and take him to the police station. Ismael and JB manage to escape along with the body.
The entire family goes to bury their mother’s body. Nadia tells Rachid that she is pregnant. Ismael and Omar patch things up. The series ends with a burial scene of their dead mother.
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