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10/18/08
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Bab'Aziz - The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul (2008)
57 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 23
Fresh: 13
Rotten:10
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Consensus: This visually stunning interior epic inspired by Sufi mysticism explores the magic of storytelling but, like its desert locations, can be a bit dry.
Theatrical Release: Feb 8, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: A visual poem of incomparable beauty, this masterpiece from director Nacer Khemir (Wanderers of the Desert) begins with the story of a blind dervish named Bab’Aziz and his spirited granddaughter, Ishtar. Together they wander the desert... [More]
Starring: Parviz Shahinkhou, Nessim Kahloul, Maryam Hamid, Golshifteh Farahani
Director: Nacer Khemir
DVD Info
Reviews for Bab'Aziz - The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul
The cycle of youth and age and the trope of a journey come together inevitably, maybe predictably, but not without sparks of wisdom.
10/18/08
Top Critic Cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari (Offside) conjures magic from an array of pastels, shimmering lights, and enigmatic ruins.
05/30/08
The movie never gains much narrative momentum and the religious elements remain a bit obscure to the uninitiated, but the fine Sufi music and skillfully crafted images make for pleasant-enough viewing.
05/29/08
Perhaps inevitably, the story and characters in Bab'Aziz never rival the interest of its photography.
04/25/08
Those who find Rumi's wisdom as unknowable as desert sand constantly reshaped by the wind that blows it, will have the same reaction to Bab'Aziz.
04/17/08
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.
04/04/08
Using a mostly seamless series of narrative techniques, the film spins a string of interconnected stories based on Sufi mysticism.
03/14/08
[Nacer] Khemir, a poet and a painter as well as a filmmaker... uses the endless, timeless desert landscape to create an existence in which past and present coexist.
03/13/08
With the collaboration of screenwriter Tonino Guerra, Khemir has created a fresh variation on the somewhat tired subgenre of the crisscross, in which the paths of strangers intersect and converge.
02/22/08
Top Critic An episodic fairy tale that dazzles the eyes and sometimes tries the patience.
02/22/08
Although beautifully filmed, Bab’Aziz’s form mirrors the actions of its characters, wandering the desert and dancing among the tales, returning to the present-day story for Ishtar, with her wise, old face, to say, 'What happened next?'.
02/11/08
The arrival of the film is, to misuse a dervish cliche, something worth singing and dancing about.
02/10/08
As far as fable imports go, Bab'Aziz is a step up from the Disney-grade moralism of Milarepa, but it's even less memorable.
02/08/08
The director, Nacer Khemir, wrote the story 'with the participation of' Tonino Guerra, who has worked with greats such as Fellini, Antonioni and Tarkovsky. Enough said.
02/08/08
Bab'Aziz was shot mostly in parched Iranian landscapes; the film's brilliant cinematographer, Mahmoud Kalari, frames the dunes, rock formations and sandblasted village and cities with a poet's eye, turning real spaces into dreamscapes.
02/08/08
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