Sitting through feature-length film works in a gallery can often be hard going. Luckily young Palestinian artist Jumana Manna’s new film ‘A magical substance flows into me’ is worth watching from beginning to end, even at 70 minutes long.
Manna’s film is inspired by the research of German-Jewish ethnomusicologist, Robert Lachmann (who fled to Israel at the beginning of WWII). In it, she revisits the diaspora groups – Kurdish, Moroccan, Yemenite Jews, Samaritans, Palestinian communities, Bedouins and Coptic Christians – whose traditional music Lachmann studied and recorded for the 1930s radio series, Oriental Music.
The complex histories of Manna’s hometown, Jerusalem are pieced together. Shots of domestic spaces where men play instruments and talk about the importance of music are interspersed with exterior shots of the locale from hustling daytime to peaceful dusk.
She includes her parents as well as herself to reflect a personal connection to the subject and even poses questions to friends, such as ‘Would your dad sing Kurdish songs in his police uniform?’ Intermittently she narrates text from Lachmann’s writings and discloses the integral element of music in different ceremonial customs such as weddings.
The film concludes in what looks like the building site of a house as three men create a rapturous song, so the beats of tradition boom around the space. As the credits come up suddenly there’s a shot of a Coptic bishop, featured earlier, who blesses Jumana and her team in their endeavour.
Through a candid camera approach, instinctive dialogue and warm celluloid tones, Manna creates a beautifully poignant film that explores how musical customs create identity and overcome cultural suppression. Here, the power of music truly transcends politics.
The film is 70 minutes. Screenings begin at 12.05pm, 1.15pm, 2.25pm, 3.35pm and 4.45pm.