New film from director Izza Génini highlights Andalusian music

2008-10-10

Acclaimed Moroccan director Izza Génini has produced a string of documentaries on how her country's diverse population transcends ethnicity and religion to find common ground. In an exclusive interview with Magharebia, Génini talks about her new film.

Interview conducted by Imane Belhaj for Magharebia in Casablanca – 10/10/08.

[Imane Belhaj] Moroccan Jewish director Izza Génini spoke to Magharebia about her film's vision of Morocco as the land of dialogue and tolerance

In her new documentary film Nûba d’Or et de Lumière (Sprees of Gold and Light), Moroccan Jewish director Izza Génini continues her cinematic exploration of the cultural, religious and social aspects of life in Morocco. This latest in a series of 11 documentary films on "Morocco: Body and Soul" highlights Arab Andalusian music, born from combining Muslim Arab, Amazigh, Spanish Christian and Eastern Jewish cultures in the melting pots of Andalusia and Morocco.

The film recently won the Mediteranius Award at a festival in Granada, Spain. The documentary was also screened last August at a film festival in the United States, where it won the admiration of critics.

In an exclusive interview with Magharebia, Izza Génini spoke about her film's vision of Morocco as the land of dialogue and tolerance and how its featured music transcends borders, races and ethnicities.

Magharebia: Who is Izza Génini?

Izza Génini: Izza Génini is a Moroccan woman who owes her name to her grandmother Ijja, a Jewish woman of Amazigh descent. I left Morocco when I was 17 to go to France, but I remained very attached to my home country, to the point that I have devoted all my working life to it.

Magharebia: Could you tell us more about your latest documentary, Nûba d'Or et de Lumière?

Génini: Nûba d’Or et de Lumière is my newest and longest film (78 minutes), and my most courageous to date. Tackling Arab-Andalusian Nûba music, without actually being a muluaa (follower) or a specialist myself, was risky on more than one count. I took the risk... and if the film is being appreciated and recognised today by the most demanding lovers of this music, then it is thanks to all those who supported me through this endeavour, and particularly the musicians themselves.

Magharebia: You showed it recently at a festival in the USA. Were you pleased with how critics received your film?

Génini: The film was shown in Houston, New York and Portland. It’s going to be shown in Montreal and Los Angeles as part of music festivals [and] festivals of Arab or Sephardic culture – to very different audiences – each of which have, in their own way, given the film an enthusiastic reception.

That's the gamble with this film: being allowed in by Moroccan lovers of El Ala and revealing this music to those who do not know it, in the wider world.

Magharebia: The film talks about the heritage shared by Muslims and Jews. Does it have a message?

Génini: I think the film Nûba d’Or et de Lumière is looking more to spread the pleasure of the music than to carry a message, but in talking about this music, and showing how it is shared naturally by different communities, whether they are Christian, Jewish or Muslim, the film clearly says that there is a space where, through the centuries and the disagreements, people can reach an understanding.

[Imane Belhaj] Nûba d’Or et de Lumière won the Mediteranius Award at a festival in Granada, Spain

Magharebia: Is it about showing a picture of tolerance and co-habitation on Moroccan soil?

Génini: Morocco illustrates this reality so much better because it has never stopped upholding this co-habitation, particularly in music. You just have to look back over the innumerable initiatives to bring musicians together, like the first exceptional meeting between the late Abdessadek Chekara and Rabbi Haim Louk in Paris in 1988, at the instigation of the Identity and Dialogue association, or the Festival of Atlantic Andalusias in Essaouira, which offers a unique and heartening example of cultural symbiosis.

Magharebia: Have you directly experienced this kind of co-habitation or symbiosis, if you will, in Morocco?

Génini: Personally, I've had the privilege of living out my childhood and my youth in Morocco in a completely mixed society; not only were there Jews and Muslims, but I mixed with French and Spanish people too, in a joyous mix of different social classes and languages. I’m proud of that and grateful for it.

If that comes through in my films, it’s because I’ve lived it.

Magharebia: Could it be said that your series of 11 documentary films on "Morocco: Body and Soul" tells the story of Morocco and its different social, cultural and religious aspects?

Génini: The series of documentary films I produced about Morocco has no purpose other than to bear witness and to share. I don't have the academic resources or the desire to make films of an historic, social or religious nature, but by offering artists an opportunity to express their art in front of the camera, or by taking my own view of our cultural riches, then perhaps I contribute to that.

Magharebia: How have Moroccans around the world, Muslims and Jews, responded to your films?

Génini: When I was inspired to make my first documentary in 1987 about Fatna Bent El Hocine (may she rest in peace), it was a response to a personal whim. Like Monsieur Jourdain who "talked in prose without realising", I didn't know that this film would be the first of a long series which would travel the world for years, visiting festivals and museums, being seen by Moroccans abroad and the public at home.

In Montreal, on November 1st and 2nd, they will be showing around ten of my films as part of a festival of culture from the Arab world.

In Morocco, however, we still need to organise the commercial and cultural release of this work. It is now part of our heritage.