Bab’Aziz Review

3/5

The opening film of the sixth Africa In Motion Film Festival in Edinburgh, Bab’Aziz is a powerful fable that explores the mystical dimensions of Sufism. It serves as the final part of Khemir’s ‘Desert Trilogy’, which also comprises Les Baliseurs du Désert (Wanderers Of The Desert, 1984) and Le Collier Perdu de la Colombe (The Dove’s Lost Necklace, 1991).

Khemir often cites A Thousand And One Nights as a major influence in his work and no more is this apparent than in Bab’Aziz. The film features an overarching narrative which follows a blind dervish (Parviz Shahinkhou) and his young granddaughter, Ishtar (Maryam Hamid), as they venture across the desert in search of a great Sufi reunion which hasn’t taken place for thirty years.

Read more…

Taken from Subtitled Online, published Tue Nov 22nd 2011.