Muezzin

A very unlikely (and charming) sports doc in which Islamic prayer chanting becomes the focus of intense competition. Brameshuber tags along with a number of zealous young chanters in and around Istanbul, all of whom are hoping that their intricate, lilting calls will get them to the Pan-Turkish finals. What makes the film work so well is that the characters – many of them virtually divorced from the realities of work and parenthood due to their obsessive practicing – make for such interesting company, not least the amusingly vainglorious chant instructor and judge Habil Önde.