2/5
This movie was introduced by Martin Scorsese at Cannes, as it is the first film restored by Scorsese's new World Cinema Foundation. In his speech at the beginning, he called this film his "obsession" after seeing it in 1981, so I had pretty high hopes for it. It is a musical documentary about the most famous Moroccan band, Nass El Ghiwane. I had seen three movies beforehand and it had been a long day, so that may have affected my viewing of it. But it was just an awful movie. The cinematography was terrible except for a few evocative shots. The band's music was actually quite mesmerizing and transporting; it was refreshingly different from the other music (or lack thereof) in a lot of the movies I've been seeing at Cannes. But for a movie that was just restored, it looked and sounded awful, as if it still needed remastering. There were faded colors, dull hues, and the sound mix goes in and out. The stories that the band tells are actually pretty interesting, but my exhausted body as well as the sound troubles separated me from them. I would not recommend this movie, even though Scorsese said it inspired some of the music for The Last Temptation of Christ.
IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0406280/