Directors Inanc Tekgüc and Eda Elif Tibet begin their documentary about nomadic, Moroccan shepherds with a rather romantic view: Beautiful, extreme wide shots of sheep and goats by day and night, grazing and resting underneath skies both starry and clear. Alongside the livestock, their caregivers reside in tents. The land appears untouched, save some dirt roads. This is the audience’s introduction to the Ben Youssef family of the Aït Atta tribe, one of three Morrocan groups that travel annually to the Agdal Igourdane, a communal land that has been passed down for centuries. AÏT ATTA: Nomads of the High Atlas offers us a “glimpse into their journey,” a journey full of history and traditions that may not survive the 21st century.
The Ben Youssef family travels 150 kilometers (or roughly 93 miles) by foot every summer to bring their livestock to the green pastures and flowing water in the high elevations of the protected Agdal Igourdane. It’s too hot in their town, Nkob, in the summer, so there’s not enough grass or water for their herds. (Perhaps an effect of climate change?) Si Brahim, the patriarch of the family, has been coming to the agdal all his life. He directs his sons – Icho and Ahmed – but is not harsh with them. Their sister, their wives, a cousin, and a handful of children accompany them on the trek. Caring for the animals (between 600 to 800 of them) is a group effort. As shepherds, they help the animals graze by day and guard the livestock by night. The whole family is illiterate, but well-versed in the land and its traditions. “I am nomadic because this is the work handed down by my family,” Icho explains.
It’s an especially hard life for nomadic women – no help or modern facilities for childbirth (one woman claims to have given birth on the side of a road), no childcare, no one to cook for them after a long day spent shepherding. Despite their lack of modern amenities, AÏT ATTA includes satisfying sequences of cooking – bread cooked over jagged rocks, wheels of salt ground to a powder with herbs, kebabs cooked over an open fire.
The path to Agdal Igourdane is full of contradictions: both flat and mountainous, with torrential downpours and stretches of drought, rivers and streams with no water… Each day brings a new set of circumstances. “Nothing is easy,” but despite this life full of conflicting unknowns, the Ben Youssef family all keep a sense of humor about their circumstances, slyly smiling and laughing at everyday absurdities.
Only a couple dozen families come to Igourdane now, compared to the 100 or so of the past. More nomads are looking for an easier life, one where they can settle down, including several members of the Youssef family, who are the first to admit that things could be easier. They want to continue with their traditional, nomadic existence, but they need help. For much of the journey, there is no road, unpaved or otherwise. If they could take advantage of a truck and save themselves days of work, they would, but it’s expensive. They need schooling, so school age children stay behind with family to attend school while their parents travel for work. However, the parents miss their children, who likewise wish their parents would come home and settle down. Many nomads abandon the lifestyle so that their kids can get an education and lead an easier, potentially more secure life.
It seems like most of the Ben Youssef family hopes to settle down someday, whether they long for a house or a good night’s sleep. The younger generation is prepared to let the nomadic tradition go and the older generation encourages them to seek a more comfortable future. But like the journey itself, these conversations about the future have contradictions. Icho claims his father, Si Brahim, will never give up nomadism and that there’s no stopping him. But when interviewers ask Si Brahim if he’ll keep coming to the agdal, he replies, “I can’t… My body is tired.” Most interviewees end their predictions with a wise and humble “only Allah knows.”
With the bonus of scenic landscape cinematography, AÏT ATTA: Nomads of the High Atlas serves as a historical document of an ancient and at-risk tradition and lifestyle. The breathtaking views of the nomads’ journey stresses the beauty and isolation of their daily lives. The filmmakers use a traditional interview format, letting the subjects tell their story in their own words. As an educational documentary, it doesn’t make for thrilling viewing. To get the most out of AÏT ATTA, a general audience probably would need to have prior interest in the subject matter or some background information to help contextualize the film. Structured around the fifteen-day journey to Agdal Igourdane, AÏT ATTA’s pacing feels like that of the nomads: one day at a time, and who knows what the next one will bring?
What academic library shelves would AÏT ATTA: Nomads of the High Atlas be on?
Academic libraries with a specialty in sociology, agriculture, African studies, and environmental studies should be sure to include AÏT ATTA: Nomads of the High Atlas in their film collections.
This film would also work well for Ethnographic and Anthropology Studies. Ethnography is the study of culture and human societies. It is similar to anthropology, which is also the study of cultures and human societies. Ethnography involves the study of people in their natural environment through methods like participant observation and face-to-face interviewing.
What subjects or college majors would benefit from the content covered in AÏT ATTA: Nomads of the High Atlas?
AÏT ATTA: Nomads of the High Atlas could conceivably serve as a supplementary material for courses on African studies, ecology, environmental sciences, sociology, and agriculture.
What kind of film series would AÏT ATTA: Nomads of the High Atlas fit in?
AÏT ATTA: Nomads of the High Atlas would fit into an Earth Day film series that features documentaries about the environmental and economic impact of climate change, such as the classic documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. It could also serve well in a series that reflects on capitalism’s effects on rural economies and livelihoods.
Inanc Tekgüc | Director
Hailing from Cyprus, Inanç works as a photographer and videographer complementing his perspective with an MA in Visual Anthropology, which he got from the University of Kent (UK), focusing on community-based conservation and biocultural diversity. His interests took him to a few places around the world such as Kenya, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, and Morocco for independent research, volunteer work or contributions to projects of researchers.
These experiences include the use of photographs and videos for geo-tagging and community mapping, inter-community training in the use of visual tools, and visually documenting multidisciplinary research training and workshops.
His photo story depicting the motivations of Kenya’s Samburu tribe to take on community-based conservation earned him the 2nd place in a global travel photography contest organized by National Geographic’s Jason Edwards and the World Nomads scholarship program.
Eda Elif Tibet | Director
Eda is an independent documentary filmmaker and a visual anthropologist from Istanbul.
She filmed and directed award winning documentary films under her own label KARMAMOTION a non- hierarchical collective run by academics, artists and activists.
Her recent films are; Ait Atta Nomads of the High Atlas (2020), Awakening a Fairy Tale (2020), Ballad for Syria (2017), Refugee Here I Am (2015), Hey Goat! (2014), AMCHI (2013), and 28 Days on the Moon (2012).
Awards
2022 | Winner Golden Sun Award for Best Documentary of the Year, by SUNCINE (FICMA) Film Festival, Barcelona, Catalunya
2022 | Winner Human Ecology Award by Green Planet Films, USA
2021 | Winner Human Rights Award by QIIFF Quetzalcoatl Indigenous Film Festival (Film and World Indigenous cultures), Oaxaca, Mexico
2021 | Winner Best Documentary Awards, London Documentary Awards, UK
2021 | Winner Best Documentary Film of the Month at Oniros Film Festival, New York, New York USA
Accolades
"This film is an important historical document of an ancient tradition, a true gem of gift to the future generations." - Peter Biele, Co-Producer of Star Wars.
"This is an outstanding account of an endangered culture, a beautifully made poetic film with a long and long after life." - Tala Hadid, Award Winning Moroccan filmmaker
"We can learn quite a lot about what it means to be human. Highly Recommended." - S. Lyons for The Sound View
Festival and Special Screenings
2022 | Festival International du Film Ethnographic du Quebec FIFEQ, 19 May, Canada
2022 | Ethnografilm Paris, 22 April, France
2022 | Göttingen Visual Anthropology Film Festival, May, Germany.
2022 | Film Screening and Roundtable, Cadi Ayyad University Festival, Marrakech, Morocco
2022 | Harvest Festival, Film Screening and Roundtable, Institute Francais, Marrakech, Morocco
2021 | Golden Tree International Film Festival, Paris, France
2021 | International Migration and Environmental Film Festival IMEFF, Ontario, Canada
2021 | Essex Doc Fest, UK
2021 | Kosice International Monthly Film Festival, Slovakia
2021 | Kratovo Ethnological Documentary Film Festival, Macedonia
2021 | The S.O.F.A Film Festival, 18 October, Cyprus
2021 | International Nature Film Festival Gödöllő - Nature and Environmental Protection Festival, 28 May, Budapest, Hungary
2021 | Athens Ethnographic Film Festival, Athens, Greece
2021 | Moscow International Festival of Visual Anthropology "Mediating Camera”, 11-16 May, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2021 | Global Lift-Off Screenings, Pinewood Studios in the UK and Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, USA
2021 | Mediterranean Films Festival, Cannes, November, France
2021 | EthnoKino Visual Anthropology Film Screening and Roundtable, Bern, Switzerland
2021 | Nominated for Best Feature Documentary Film at BARCIFF Barcelona Indie Filmmakers Fest, Spain
View the Press Kit here.
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