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Sandpit Collective Presents "Other Asias" - Mirrors for Princes: Bab 'Aziz

  • The Rose Hill 70 Rose Hill Terrace Brighton, England, BN1 4JL United Kingdom (map)

TUESDAY 4th MARCH | 7pm | £10 advance tickets

Sandpit Collective presents Other Asias, a film programme inspired by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s challenge to rethink "Asia" and the ethnic classification ‘Other Asian’ used in the UK to describe individuals who self-identify as Asian but do not fit within the four largest Asian ethnic categories. This programme seeks to explore the complexities of identity, and otherness, disrupting what has been under and misrepresented within mainstream narratives.

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The Sandpit Collective, in partnership with the University of Sussex, presents,'بابا عزيز Bab'Aziz: The prince who contemplated his soul' by artist, poet and cineast Nacer Khemir.

The final instalment of Khemir's desert triptych centres around the journey of a blind dervish, Bab Aziz and his granddaughter, Ishtar, traveling across the desert towards an immense Sufi gathering that only happens every 30 years. In a deliberate attempt to imitate the structure of Iranian Sufi visions and dances, the film follows their encounter with several strangers who impart them with stories of their own mysterious and spiritual quests in the path to love.

Mirrors for Princes: Within classical Arabic literature this genre served as pragmatic guidance for administrative and procedural aspects of governance while stressing the role of rulers as moral exemplars.

In our journey into Maghrebi Feminist Post-Colonial cinema we showcase the male directors that prepared the way for these female luminaries not only by examining tropes of masculinity, gender roles and identities within societal convention but also by providing opportunities for these pioneering women to gain the skills and the confidence to develop their craft.

Bab 'Aziz: the prince who contemplated his soul, Nacer Khemir, 2005, 96 minutes, in Farsi with English subtitles