It is in a village lost at the bottom of the desert, a young teacher was named, to teach, but there is no school.
Through the yant glance foudro of a girl, our teacher is aspired by another world to the suspended time where côtoient Thousand and One Nights. Coordinate all the hidden force of an underground memory...

One of the most beautiful desert movies, in which storyteller and painter Nacer Khemir tells us the journey of a young teacher (Nacer Khemir) that arrives in a desert village.

A young teacher is sent to an isolated village in the Tunisian desert, but instead of devoting himself to teaching the man vanishes in pursuit of enigmas, losing himself in the space and time of the fables and legends of ancient Arab culture. The man falls in love with the local sheikh's daughter and lets himself be carried away by this world of sand and the Andalusian songs of the baliseurs: wanderers of the desert who spring from the sand and disappear into the sand, tracing an invisible line of separation between reality and dream. In this film magic and reality are blended to celebrate the beauty of the desert.

A film by Nacer Khemir

Tunisia / France, 1984, Feature, Fiction, 1h35 minutes, color, 35 mm, language Arabic

With Nacer Khemir, Soufiane Makni, Noureddine Kasbaoui, Sonia Ichti

CRITIC'S NOTES
The first film directed by the storyteller, illustrator and poet Nacer Khemir takes an oral legend as its starting point and turns it into a complex allegory. The director lines up mysteries, deceptions and questions without giving answers, but controls his labyrinthine tale with an unobtrusive incantatory skill, favoring the problem of time over that of space. Plain, bare and elliptical, the Tunisian's directorial debut pays tribute to the splendor of Arab culture through a studied and painterly composition of the shots and sequences and a screenwriting steeped in poetry.

Director: Nacer Khemir

screenplay: Nacer Khemir

cinemtaographer: Georges Barsky
editor: Moufida Tlatli
production designers: Robert Narbonne, Arno Heins
costume designer: Maud Perl

music: 
Fethi Zgonda
sound: Faouzi Thabet

CAST
Nacer Khemir
,
Hédi Daoud
,
Sonia Ichti,
Hassen Khalsi,
Noureddine Kasbaoui,
Soufiane Makni,
Jamila Ourabi,
Mohsen Zazaa

A coproduction
Latif Production / France Media

International Sales:
Amilcar Films (Lotfi Layouni)

2017 restoration curated by Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique
film laboratory: Cinémathèque Royale 
de Belgique


trigon-film dvd-edition 48, film in OV, arabic with english, german and french subtitles, 90 minutes, chapters, DD, 1:1.66/16:9, PAL, color

Tags: Tunisia, Maghreb, Africa, Fiction

AWARDS
Great price of the festival of the 3 continents Nantes 1985.
Oliver of gold: Mediterranean festival of Valence 1996. International Price of the critic: Festival Méditérranéen de Valence 1996


restoration curated by Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique
film laboratory: Cinémathèque Royale 
de Belgique

________________

DE
Nacer Khemir führt uns bildlich gesprochen ins Leben der Wüste ein. Es ist ein Leben ausserhalb des gängigen Zeitbegriffs. Das Schiff, das da plötzlich vor den Mauern der Stadt liegt, könnte jenes von Sindbad dem Seefahrer sein. Es steht für das Meer, für die Suche nach der Weite, nach dem Anderen hinter dem Horizont. Das Schiff weist andererseits auf die andalusische Brücke: Córdoba ist da und Samarkand nie fern. Die Baliseurs, die Wüstenwanderer, sie ziehen einher, singen ihre andalusischen Lieder, summen vor sich hin, wie der Wind. "Unsere Kinder", sagt der Alte, "sie gehen nach und nach im besten Alter. Der Fluch reisst sie in seine Fata Morgana und löscht sie für immer aus." Die Wüste verschlingt ihre eigenen Kinder. Der Alte hat sein ganzes Leben dem Buch gewidmet, hat die Seiten neu geordnet, hat es wieder entziffert. Die Wüstenwanderer, meint er, sie sollten es lesen, "um den Fluch zu erkennen". Der Lehrer soll ihm dabei helfen, er, der Mittler zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft. Einmal mehr lässt uns der Tunesier träumen, einmal mehr zeigt er uns in Gestalt des Uniformierten auch, wie Träume ihre Feinde haben. Der Offizier jedenfalls regt sich auf, fragt erbost, ob es nicht schon genug Geschichten gebe. Geschichten verunsichern ihn in ihrer Offenheit. (wal.)

von Nacer Khemir
Tunesien, 1984

trigon-film dvd-edition 48, Film in OV Arabisch, Untertitel: d/f/e, 90 Minuten, Szenenwahl, DD, 1:1.66/16:9, PAL, Farbe

Tunesien, Maghreb, Afrika, Spielfilm

_________________

IT
Un giovane insegnante viene inviato in un villaggio isolato del deserto tunisino, ma invece di dedicarsi all'insegnamento l'uomo scompare inseguendo enigmi e perdendosi nello spazio-tempo delle favole e delle leggende della secolare cultura araba. L'uomo si innamora della figlia dello sceicco e si lascia trasportare da questo mondo di sabbia e dai canti andalusi dei baliseurs: viandanti del deserto che sorgono dalla sabbia e nella sabbia spariscono, tracciando un'invisibile linea di separazione tra realtà e sogno. In questo film magia e realtà si mescolano per celebrare la bellezza del deserto.

di Nacer Khemir

Tunisie / France, 1984, Fiction, 95 mins, col, 35 mm, lingua Arabo

cast Nacer Khemir
, Hédi Daoud
, Sonia Ichti, Hassen Khalsi, Noureddine Kasbaoui, Soufiane Makni, Jamila Ourabi, Mohsen Zazaa

NOTA CRITICA
L'esordio di Nacer Khemir, scrittore di fiabe, illustratore e poeta, prende spunto da una leggenda orale trasformata in complessa allegoria. Il regista allinea misteri, inganni e domande senza dare risposte, ma governa il suo labirintico racconto con una dimessa sapienza incantatoria, prediligendo il problema del Tempo a quello dello Spazio. Povero, spoglio, ellittico, il primo film del regista tunisino rende omaggio allo splendore della cultura araba attraverso una studiata composizione pittorica dei piani e delle sequenze e una scrittura cinematografica sapientemente intrisa di poeticità.

Regista: Nacer Khemir
sceneggiatura: Nacer Khemir

fotografia: Georges Barsky
montaggio: Moufida Tlatli
scenografia: Robert Narbonne, Arno Heins
costumi: Maud Perl

musica: 
Fethi Zgonda
suono: Faouzi Thabet

2017 | restauro a cura di Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique
laboratorio Cinémathèque Royale
de Belgique


2017 | 74. Mostra di Venezzia, Italia
* Selection - Venezia Classici
* Projection / Screening: 3 September 2017, 14:45, Sala Volpi
* Projection / Screening: 6 September 2017, 09:00, Sala Volpi
www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017/jean-rouch-cousin-cousinewww.labiennale.org/it/cinema/2017/programma-cinema-2017-accreditati/nacer-khemir-les-baliseurs-du-d%C3%A9sert-el-haimoune-i-figli-delle-mille-e-una-notte