Film

Bab'Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul (2005)

Director: Nacer Khemir

Movie review

From Time Out Chicago

Tunisian filmmaker Khemir (Markers of the Desert, The Dove’s Lost Necklace) is also a poet, painter and storyteller, facts that inform every frame of Bab’Aziz. Khemir’s love of tales comes across in the intricate interaction between the framing story—on a journey to a mysterious gathering, an old man (Shahinkhou) tells his granddaughter (Hamid) tales to stave off boredom—and the stories he and other travelers tell. With cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari, Khemir creates a vivid portrait of life in the desert, where brightly colored clothes stand out in stark contrast to the monochromatic ocean of sand.

Though the film takes place in the present-day, Khemir evokes a mystical world that feels outside time, where Sufi dervishes—mendicants who wander the world seeking only love and beauty—dispense wisdom in cryptic metaphors. Khemir made the film in part to open Western eyes to a different side of Islam, and though the details of Sufism may not become clear, the film has a haunting beauty.