The DVD-Box “Al Halqa - The Last Storytellers” consists of 3 Discs, a Booklet and Slipcase.

DVD No.1

The first DVD contains the documentary "Al Halqa - In the Storyteller's Circle". On Djemaa El Fna Square in the Moroccan city of Marrakech, Abderahim El Maqori tells tales that he has been collecting in his mind and heart since he was a child. Now that he is growing older, he is trying to teach his son Zoheir the tricks of a dying trade. The camera follows the pair on their journey through Morocco, which is interspersed with stories about ghosts, kings, shoemakers and animals. Zoheir has to learn that making a living as a storyteller requires more than just narrating skills. He needs to master how to gather a Halqa - a circle of spectators - around himself, how to attract their attention and to keep his circle closed until the end of the story.

The film is subtitled in different languages  (German, English, French, Spanish). A synchronized German version is also available on the disc.

No.3 Audio-CD

The music tracks are mainly recorder with musicians performing their halqa on Jemaa El Fna square. The recordings for the audio-disc are all made in a studio environment. Some of the tracks have been especially composed for the documentary film "Al Halqa - In the Storyteller's Circle".

Apart from the 21 music tracks, there's one track with a tale called "The Amana". It has been recorded from the storyteller Abdel Fattah and is narrated in English by Terry Martin.

Price: 39,90 EUR, incl.tax., excl. shipping

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Djinn, kings, clever women and deceitful viziers - the stories of the storytellers of the legendary square Djemaa El Fna in Marrakech bring them to life! For centuries, these stories were only passed on orally.

This audio book makes 21 selected Moroccan stories available in German translation.

These are stories told by Moroccan storytellers:

Abderrahim El Makkouri
Moulay Mohamed Jabri
Mohamed Buschama
Abdel Fattah
Mohamed Uschbair

German Speakers:

Michael Hanemann
Eva-Maria Kurz
Rainer Sellien
Hanns Zischler

Music:

Louis Soret

Content: 1 MP3-CD, app. 660 min., Booklet with 24 pages

Price: 14,52 EUR, incl. TVA., excl. Shipping.

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10 years of Morocco, 10 years of life, 10 years of emotions and encounters - captured in countless photographs and film stills. This catalogue documents Thomas Ladenburger's work on the soul of the legendary square Djemaa El Fna in Marrakech, whose actors were declared as immaterial cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 2001.

Texts by Dr. Viola Altrichter, Idriss Al-Jay, Dr. Gerd Becker, Thomas Ladenburger, Hanns Zischler.

All texts are available in 4 languages (German, English, French, Arabic).

236 pages, numerous colour illustrations
Open thread stitching

Price: 34,25 EUR, inkl. TVA., excl. Shipping.

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Shemcha, daughter of King Hetan, is an orally transmitted adventure story, originally told by Abderrahim El Makkouri, one of the last public storytellers of the Djemaa El Fna square in Marrakech.

For the book this orally transmitted story was translated from Arabic into French.

104 pages, with 2 colour illustrations.

Numbered and limited edition (200 copies)

Text in French. Translation: Louis Soret

Price: 19,53 incl. VAT., excl. Shipping

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Cinematographic Portrait

Views of a vast Andalusian lanscape are the first images that Thomas Ladenburger uses for his cinematographic portrait of Paola Beate von Pückler.

In between the surrounding hills, the seaside appears. Above the horizon waves an idea of Northern Africa. It is here, where the semiotician settled down, milks her coats, talks about her cancer with whom she lives in peace - and the ongoing pleasures of perception: seeing, listening, refliecting, writing - and death.

The openness and curiosity that both filmmaker and protagonist eradiate are astonishing and carry the film. Together, they go on a jouney. The gliding flight of a bird above the andalusian stone huts merge with a swarm of birds abobe the busy capital of Cairo inmidst Ramadan, the islamic fasting month.

For Paola Beate von Pückler, Egypt was the country to turn away from her other-directed life as diplomatic wife - fourty years ago. She describes her

Sudden transformation to a „wanderer“, her work and creation on a self-given misson, her hard work to accomodate words and action which is moved by the love of people and landscapes as well as an instinctive recognition of new affiliations.

The pyramids rise behind the brick buildings of the periphery – stranger and on the same time more accessible then in any other relation. Both travelers eplore the daily life of the people and fit out a caravan in order to set off to the desert. Under pylons next to the highway they pitch their tents for the night. It is not about leaving the civilisation but to understand it in a different manner.

Heinz Emigholz

Extras: Scene Selection, Interview with Louis Soret about the Music in the film

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