Perhaps inevitably, the story and characters in Bab'Aziz never rival the interest of its photography.
04/25/08 12:52 PM
Bab'Aziz - The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul (2008)
63 %
Reviews Counted: 16 Fresh: 10 Rotten:6 Average Rating: 6.3/10
Runtime: 86 mins
Synopsis:
A visual poem of incomparable beauty, this masterpiece from director Nacer Khemir (Wanderers of the Desert) begins with the story of a blind dervish named Bab’Aziz and his spirited granddaughter, Ishtar. Together they wander the desert in search of a great reunion of dervishes that takes... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Parviz Shahinkhou, Nessim Kahloul, Maryam Hamid, Golshifteh Farahani, Hossein Panahi
Director: Nacer Khemir
Screenwriter: Nacer Khemir
Producer: Cyriac Auriol, Ali-Reza Shojanoori
Composer: Armand Amar
Screenwriter: Nacer Khemir
Producer: Cyriac Auriol, Ali-Reza Shojanoori
Composer: Armand Amar
Reviews
1 - 16 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Those who find Rumi's wisdom as unknowable as desert sand constantly reshaped by the wind that blows it, will have the same reaction to Bab'Aziz.
04/17/08 10:18 PM
There's nothing wrong with being difficult if there's a payoff at the end. Screenwriter-director Nacer Khemir provides that with a visually stunning final scene that makes sense of everything that came before.
04/04/08 03:15 AM
Using a mostly seamless series of narrative techniques, the film spins a string of interconnected stories based on Sufi mysticism.
03/14/08 02:08 PM
[Nacer] Khemir, a poet and a painter as well as a filmmaker... uses the endless, timeless desert landscape to create an existence in which past and present coexist.
03/13/08 07:07 PM
With the collaboration of screenwriter Tonino Guerra, Khemir has created a fresh variation on the somewhat tired subgenre of the crisscross, in which the paths of strangers intersect and converge.
02/22/08 12:40 PM
Top Critic An episodic fairy tale that dazzles the eyes and sometimes tries the patience.
02/22/08 12:35 PM
Although beautifully filmed, Bab’Aziz’s form mirrors the actions of its characters, wandering the desert and dancing among the tales, returning to the present-day story for Ishtar, with her wise, old face, to say, 'What happened next?'.
02/11/08 04:44 PM
The arrival of the film is, to misuse a dervish cliche, something worth singing and dancing about.
02/10/08 11:46 AM
As far as fable imports go, Bab'Aziz is a step up from the Disney-grade moralism of Milarepa, but it's even less memorable.
02/08/08 06:01 PM
The director, Nacer Khemir, wrote the story 'with the participation of' Tonino Guerra, who has worked with greats such as Fellini, Antonioni and Tarkovsky. Enough said.
02/08/08 12:40 PM
Bab'Aziz was shot mostly in parched Iranian landscapes; the film's brilliant cinematographer, Mahmoud Kalari, frames the dunes, rock formations and sandblasted village and cities with a poet's eye, turning real spaces into dreamscapes.
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Comment
02/08/08 11:04 AM
Top Critic An enchanting and parabolic film by Tunisian director Nacer Khemir about the beauty, grace, humility, and love of the Sufi path of the heart
02/07/08 01:36 PM
A feast of dervish song and dance to delight the senses, and where Bab'Aziz essentially steals the open air show as an elder who can really shake his whirling dervish booty.
02/06/08 06:00 PM
Despite the unhurried pace, the stories unfold without compelling details, and the interweaving is more pedestrian than artful.
02/05/08 04:38 PM
The film is never anything less than interesting to look at.
02/04/08 04:11 PM
1 - 16 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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