Bab'Aziz

Directed by Nacer Khemir
Parviz Shahinkhou, Maryam Hamid

Prohibitively foreign at first, this allegorical journey across Tunisian deserts is fundamentally universal. The title character – an aging blind dervish – and his precocious granddaughter, proceed along a circuitous route towards a mysterious dervish reunion. Their journey’s thematic weight crystallizes as the elder prepares for passage into the next world, and the younger nears adulthood. Elegant and sweeping cinematography throughout gives the desert a transformative presence, rather than depict it as threatening wilderness. (NR, 1:36)

Opens February 8 at Cinema Village

This capsule review appears in the January 30 issue of The L Magazine.