Completed - ARABIC - Documentary - 80 minutes
Through concerts in Algeria, Morocco, and France, and interviews with Gnawa Diffusion’s Amzigh Kateb and Aziz Maysour, El Madani delves deep into the heart of traditional Moroccan and Algerian culture in a fascinating journey of custom and rituals across the Maghreb and Mali.
Year of production : 2012 Director(s) : Benhamou El Madani RAHMA Writer(s) : Benhamou El Madani RAHMA Producer(s) : Aghilas SOFIA (PLEIN CADRES/GUMUS PRODUCTION), Hamon KEVIN (FAT PROGRAM)
« When I was a little girl, I used to see my mother practise trance regularly.She would slowly enter this extreme attitude to the point of forgetting the outter world and its limits. Years went by. One day, as I was working in a local radio station, I recognized these sounds in an album I had received. It was a band called « Gnawa Diffusion ». I was first attracted by the name, the music was a mix, a fusion of Gnawa music and western and modern music. The lyrics were committed. Amzigh kateb and Aziz Maysour from the band Gnawa Diffusion give me answers to this image that haunts me, that of my mother going in a trance in France. And I untangle this image, this mystery by going towards the Gnawa in Morocco and Algeria… »
Country(ies) : FRANCE Financing plan : CNC/FRANCOPHONIE Start of shooting : June 2008