Trances

Ahmed El Maanouni's 1982 documentary is about the Moroccan group Nass El Ghiwane. The band works with traditional instruments and popular storytelling; its lyrics come out of a political theatre tradition and it reached a very wide audience across North Africa in the seventies. The film folds concert footage and interview into each other. Performances in Tunisia, Morocco and France, the streets of Casablanca and conversations with the members all run together; the audience's response is an important part of the record. The documentary was long unavailable and later returned to circulation as the first film of an international restoration programme. It was shot on sixteen millimetre and the texture carries the mark of the period. Who it's for: those interested in North African music and music documentary. Who it's not for: viewers who want the band's history chronologically; the film gives no information, it conveys an atmosphere.