Trances

Trances (1981) A documentary/concert film like no other, Trances looks at Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane, which rose to fame in the 1970s, the early years of Moroccan independence after decades of colonial rule. Director Ahmed El Maanouni had attracted international attention with his 1978 directorial debut, Alyam, Alyam, which became the first Moroccan film to be accepted into the Cannes Film Festival. In that film, El Maanouni had used one of Nass El Ghiwane's songs. The band had become hugely popular in their country, but was the absolute antithesis of any western idea of a so-called "pop" group. However, Moroccan-born aspiring producer Izza Ghenini had seen the band perform in Paris, and was entranced. She put El Maanouni together with Nass El Ghiwane for Trances, her fledgling production effort.

American director Martin Scorsese, who restored Trances in 2007 as the first film of his World Cinema Project to preserve and restore neglected films from around the world, compares the band to the Rolling Stones and other western bands who "went back to their roots" looking for a connection to their culture and history. And certainly in the Arab world Nass El Ghiwane achieved the popularity of Western bands like the Stones and the Beatles. But that comparison does not do justice to either Nass El Ghiwane's music--there is nothing rock-and-roll about it--nor its activist roots and concerns. The group created a unique sound using traditional Moroccan instruments and mixing language from classic poets with commentary on contemporary social issues. According to Scorsese, Nass El Ghiwane was "trying to be the voice and soul of their country" during a time of great change and political unrest. The film's title is not a reference to the western "trance" genre of electronic dance music that originated in the 1990s, but to a traditional Moroccan Islamic religious music that is the basis for the band's songs, and inspires the frenzied, trance-like reactions to the band by audiences.

While knowing something of the band's and Morocco's history and the cultural context of the music is fascinating and useful, it is not absolutely necessary--it's easy to be swept up in the film's hypnotic rhythms. Trances begins with a long concert sequence which introduces the band members and their ecstatic crowds of (all-male) fans clapping, dancing, waving clothing, and rushing the stage as security tries to contain them. That's followed with a drive into the shantytown neighborhood of Casablanca where the band's founders grew up. They began as part of a theater group whose director suggested that the five original members perform Moroccan music with a contemporary message and language, using traditional instruments and poetry. By the time the film was made, Nass El Ghiwane was already beloved and successful, and had already lost one of its founders, whose death is referenced in the film.

According to Moroccan journalist Mona Badri, "The band contributed to the shaping of a conscious and politically aware generation. Their songs had stinging criticism of society and the spread of corruption within its institutions. The late [King] Hassan II received them exclusively to perform before him their most political songs." The invitation came when the nation was at the peak of political turmoil. But band members have always denied that their songs were political. They were singing what they knew, and had grown up with--the music and language of the streets and of the people. Perhaps that's why, through deaths and departures, Nass El Ghiwane has endured.

Director: Ahmed El Maanouni
Producer: Souheil Ben-Barka, Izza Ghenini
Screenplay: Ahmed El Maanouni
Cinematography: Ahmed El Maanouni
Editor: Jean-Claude Bonfanti, Atika Tahiri
Music: Nass-El Ghiwane
Principal Cast: Larbi Batma, Abderrahman Paco, Omar Sayed, Allal Yaala
90 minutes

by Margarita Landazuri