San Francisco Chronicle
Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein

A soft, poetic side of the Muslim world is portrayed in “Bab’Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul,” a movie as multifaceted and difficult to follow as its labyrinthine title. There’s nothing wrong with being difficult if there’s a payoff at the end. Screenwriter-director Nacer Khemir provides that with a visually stunning final scene that makes sense of everything that came before.

“Bab’Aziz,” which was shot on location in Iran and Tunisia, opens with a breathtaking vista of sand dunes stretching past the eyes’ ability to see. Their sensual rounded shapes look like Edward Steichen nudes.

Looking into the distance, you half expect to see Lawrence of Arabia on a camel. Instead, there’s a girl, Ishtar (a lively Maryam Hamid), calling for her grandfather, Bab’Aziz (Parviz Shlahinkhou). A storm has separated them and delayed their journey to a kind of convention for dervishes. He’s one and his granddaughter is learning the art. This gathering they’re off to only happens every 30 years. The location is kept a secret. As Granddad tells Ishtar, the important thing is just to keep walking, for which Bab’Aziz, who is blind, relies on his companion and a stick.

At nighttime, the youngster wants to be told a story. Bab’Aziz obliges with an ancient saga of a prince who renounces his worldly pleasures to stare into a pool in the desert while contemplating his soul. This scenario is acted out as the story is narrated. Besides clearing up the meaning of the second part of the film’s title, it also adds a mysterious element to the meaning of life.

Bab’Aziz and Ishtar meet numerous people along the way with their own stories. Each time they come upon a group performing music, she’s hopeful they’ve reached the convention, only to be told by her grandfather that the group they’re seeking is much larger.

A fellow traveler tells the old man and his granddaughter that he has been seduced by a beautiful woman. Waking up in her bed, he strokes the lush head of hair next to him only to realize that she has cut it all off and left it there like a wig (well, it could have been a horse’s head) before absconding with his passport and clothes. As this young man explains, where she is headed it is difficult for a woman to travel alone, hence the borrowing of his clothes.

This is one of the few overt mentions of the lives lived by many followers of Islam. In a statement, the film’s director rather dramatically states, “I tried to wipe Islam’s face clean with my movie, by showing an open, tolerant and friendly Islamic culture, full of love and wisdom.”

Khemir has succeeded to the extent that he makes you forget you’re watching Muslims and just think you’re watching people.