Bab'Aziz: Prince Who Contemplated His Soul [DVD] [2006] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

One of my favourite movies ever. If you want to know about the mystic of arab culture. The incredible beauty of their storytelling is woven into an journey through the desert where an old wise sufi and his granddaughter try to find the meeting place of the annual gathering of all the sufis. Watch it and you will be enchanted. Here you see the roots of the arab culture: An advanced and wise civilisation.

This is one of the most profoundly beautiful films I have ever seen! It touched a deep chord in the Heart - I must have cried for an hour, such a deep healing. I can recommend this to anyone open the the Light, the Great Heart <3

Wonderful movie. Relaxing, with plenty of nice music and an inspiring message.

one of my favourite films of all time. The Sufi view of life and death is very appealing and comforting.

Beautiful movie, in Farsi and Arabic. Captures the essence of the Sufis from Iran to Africa. Beautiful film

It was Armand Amar’s sublime score that lead me to search for this film. Thanks to the review by MAH, I was able to purchase the region-free version of the DVD from Trigon Films. Their DVD proved to be a high quality product with lovely artwork and with English subtitles, the latter though not following international formatting standards. If your DVD player up-scales the image by 4% as some players do, the lengthy, single-line subtitles of the Trigon DVD get cut off at either end. Apart from that and the French language interview with the director, Nacer Khemir not carrying English subtitles, Trigon version appears to be the only good quality, subtitled, region-free DVD of ‘Bab'Aziz’ currently available online. The cheapest advertised by resellers here costs £25.00 in total, but without English subtitles. The one on Trigon is fairly prized at £15.00. Once VAT, delivery and currency conversion charges added, the total amounts to about £19.00. The Swiss company, Trigon Films are co-producers of Bab'Aziz and are an amazing source of rare marvels in world cinema on disk, as I found on their online shop.‘Bab'Aziz’ is an audiovisual poem of ethereal beauty. As with any meaningful poetry, it is open to individual interpretation. I had to watch it three times before my mind conceived something objective to say about the film: it delicately depicts our eternal quest for meaning in life, but without being pessimistic in doing so. The resulting experience is a meditative reflection on existence as a whole, and an intensely rewarding one at that.It exquisitely captures the timeless nature of the desert landscapes where the story unfolds, as a character rather than a mere backdrop. Add the astounding performances of each and every member of the cast, including those of animals, thought-provoking Sufi philosophy both in prose and verse, symbolism in most everything that we see and an eclectic score, we have a masterpiece that is unparalleled in the history of cinema.My only reservation though is that the film is in 35 mm. I would have loved ‘Bab'Aziz’ even more if it were shot in 70 mm, but having seen the size of the multinational collaboration that was needed to realise this project, I am not surprised that the less costly option has been adopted. As they say, ‘beggars can’t be choosers’!

This a wonderfully shot story that mixes reality with story-telling. It follows the journey of an old man near the end of his life for what will be his last chance to attend a gathering held once every thirty years. Along the way, there are interesting characters and unusual events, such as; the story of a prince who became lost in contemplation of his soul, a man trying to track down his twin's murderer, and another man searching for a lost love. Please note that the version here is a US import and may not be compatible with your DVD player. If you want to find a version that you can watch on a UK DVD player, there is a Swiss distributor called Trigon Films who sell it online as an OV (Original Version) which still has English subtitles (as well as German and French). The box design is slightly different, a small information booklet inside is written in German and there is an interview with the director in French. Other than that, the film itself is identical.

Even tho the blind, aged Dervish doesn't know the way as he journeys with his granddaugther thru the desert to the Dervish gathering, he has his faith to guide him. He is wise and at one with the world. And he must make this pilgrimage. We all do. As we will learn at the end.Like "The Arabian Nights", this incorporates other stories within the main one -- of people on private quests. While the stories are very dramatic, they are subtly explored in vague and dreamlike ways -- like a Sufi tale.This movie is more than that, however. It's also a sensory experience. This is an unbelievably beautiful film. Of desertscape. Of buildings and vibrant artifacts. Of haunting music and poetry.While the Tunisia-born writer/director Nacer Khemi may be a lost soul, torn between his present life in France and his Arabic background, and anguished by the present-day turmoil of the Islamic world, he has sublimated his painful, personal quest into a film of great beauty.