Nazha's Wedding

Nazha's Wedding (Les Noces de Nazha)
A documentary film directed by Corinne Cauvin-Verner, 52 min

At the end of the 1970’s, the decline of the pastoralism led a large number of the Bedouins of the Western Sahara to become sedentary in the South of Morocco, along the border with Algeria. Most of them still use their camels for treks - but now with international tourists. Nazha is one of these settled Bedouin from the Arabic-speaking tribe of Nwaji. She is 17. Tomorrow, her parents will marry her to Youssef, one of the sons of her father’s brother. Since her childhood she has lived in Zagora, quite a large town far away from the desert, but her wedding provides a moment when the Bedouin social order is reactualized. This film is remarkable for the access and intimacy achieved by the director who first met these Bedouin while researching the strangers - the tourists - with whom the Bedouin work.

Cauvin Verner attended film school in Paris and after a career as assistant director and screenwriter, was awarded a doctorate in Anthropology from l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales for her dissertation on transformations of Saharan societies, titled In the Desert: Anthropology of Tourism in Southern Morocco - published in 2007 by Editions L'Harmattan.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker.