Type:
Documentary
Director:
Fadwa El Guindi
Year:
1990
Time:
40 minutes
Language:
Arabic with English Subtitles
|
| |
El Moulid (birth) refers to a public religious festival celebrating the life and legacy of a holy person. This film vividly captures the festive and religious mood of the very popular seven-hundred-year-old Moulid of the 13th Century Muslim Wali, Sayyid Ahmad Al-Badawy, held annually in Tanta, Egypt during cotton harvest.
By layering images, this visual ethnography analyzes the Moulid's structure and symbolism, and reveals various levels of religious experience - scriptural, mystical, ritual, mythical, interacting with secular traditional life. It culminates in a dramatic procession: drummers on camels, a Sufi parade, workers representing medieval vocational guilds, and finally circumcised boys in horse carriages. Vigorous masculinity and potent spirituality are symbolized as an integral part of the journey from boyhood to manhood and become part of the larger regenerative cycle from life to death to rebirth.
Rental Information
This film is available from AFD for public screenings and television broadcast. For information regarding rental rates and formats, please contact institutions@arabfilm.com for institutional/non-theatrical screenings, or festivals@arabfilm.com for theatrical, festival, television, or other bookings.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
