San Francisco Bay Guardian
Reviewed by: Jennique Mason

Directed by Nacer Khemir with help from screenwriter Tonino Guerra (L’Avventura [1960], Amarcord [1973]), Bab’Aziz traces the journey of a blind dervish who has taken a vow of poverty and his delightful granddaughter Ishtar. Wandering through the desert in search of a great reunion of dervishes that happens once every 30 years, they rely on faith to guide them through the expansive and seemingly endless sand dunes of Tunisia and Iran. As they meet other dervishes along the way, Bab’Aziz relays an enchanting tale of a prince who foregoes his wealth to contemplate his soul by a pool in the desert.

Like a poem filmed in radiant and incandescent colors, Bab’Aziz is a welcome return to the psychedelic and the purely visual, replete with a bitchin’ soundtrack.