FRANCE: Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese intruduces Moroccan film at Cannes

The Moroccan film which inspired the music written for one of U.S. director Martin Scorsese's films has screened at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the special Cannes Classics selection. "Trances," shot by Moroccan director Ahmed El Maanouni in 1981, follows the four members of the cult Moroccan grassroots band Nass el Ghiwane as they perform to ecstatic crowds, rehearse and go about their daily lives at home in the poor district of Hay al-Mahmoudi in industrial Casablanca. Scorsese famously dubbed the band the "Rolling Stones of Africa," and it spoke for the rebellious youth of North Africa during the 1970s. Oscar-winning Scorsese introduced the film to Cannes audience members. The film, restored by Cineteca di Bologna in Italy, kicked off Cannes screenings of a series of international classic films dating as far back as 1931, including a number of John Wayne films and Lawrence Olivier adaptations of Shakespeare plays. Scorsese explained how he had first seen the film on late night television in New York in the early 1980s and became fascinated with Nass el Ghiwane's chant-like music and with the effect the music had on North African audiences, many of whom would enter a state of trance as they danced to the highly rhythmic beats. "I tracked down the music and eventually that music became inspiration for many of the designs and construction for my film 'The Last Temptation of Christ,'" Scorsese told audience members ahead of the screening. "What I found fascinating about the film beyond the music was the fact that El Maanouni put together a portrait not just of the band Nass el Ghiwane but of Morocco itself and the world from which the music came," he added. Nass el Ghiwane band members Laarbi Batma, Boujemaa Hagour, Omar Essayed and Tayeb Essidiki formed Nass el Ghiwane in 1969, and specialised in writing colloquial poetry about the social and political climate of their time. They provided an alternative to Arabic classical and pop music by mixing Sufi chants with Berber rhythms and dance music of the mystical African Gnawas. They were taken up by a generation of rebellious youth as their spokespeople. "The whole film was a labour of love for the music, a labour of love and respect for the men who were young men at the time and for their artistic talent. My role was simple: to record with respect," director El Maanouni told Reuters in an interview. "The poetry, the words of Nass el Ghiwane are very deep, very deep and simple at the same time. They say things about our time now, about how the Arabs and Africans feel they are in this world but outside it, in the margins," he added. El Maanouni was also in Cannes to promote his most recent film, "Burning Hearts," about a young Moroccan man who lives in Paris, and who returns home to see his dying uncle, thereby reviving the deep wounds of a painful childhood. El Maanouni also helped Martin Scorsese launch the new World Cinema Foundation in Cannes. The non-profit organisation aims to provide funding for the restoration and distribution of films from around the world, especially Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Central Europe.

ITN Source | May 25, 2007

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