Originally released by Criterion as part of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project (VL-3/14), director Ahmed El Maanouni’s Trances (1981) is a mostly conventional music documentary centering on the wildly popular Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane, who play traditional instruments and sing about peace before large adoring crowds (almost exclusively male).
The opening performance before a massive audience captures the group’s heavy-percussion-based music and chanting lyrics—a rhythmically powerful wall of sound that can transport listeners into ecstatic dance, often accompanied by people shouting “Praise Allah!”.
Combining concert clips and interviews with the four musicians—leader Omar Sayed, Frank Zappa lookalike storyteller Larbi Batma, Abderrahman “Paco” Kirouche, and musically trained Allal Yaala—the film occasionally also intersperses archival black-and-white shots that reference North Africa’s tortured history under French colonial rule. Nass El Ghiwane’s music reflects the struggles that followed independence as a poverty-stricken people fought continuing oppression as well as the Western world’s general attitude of disdain towards Arabs.
Beyond the appeal of the music, Trances offers valuable impressionistic ethnographic glimpses of Moroccan life (including one graphic scene of animal slaughter), but the reality is that without Scorsese’s personal championing of this film, it is unlikely that it would have generated much interest beyond regional. Originally shot on 16mm, Trances still looks vibrant and sharp thanks to a 2K digital restoration (the sound, unfortunately, is monaural, although the uncompressed soundtrack—while not room-filling—is clean).
Extras include a 2013 introduction by Scorsese, a 2013 interview program (featuring director Maanouni, producer Izza Génini, musician Sayed, and Scorsese), and a foldout leaflet with an essay by film scholar Sally Shafto. A strong optional purchase. (Randy Pitman)