A time-traveling mixtape that makes borders dissolve — one haunting song at a time.
Robert Lachmann was a German-Jewish ethnomusicologist. In the 1930s, his radio show "Oriental Music" explored the musical traditions of Palestine and included regular live performances by musicians from different ethnic and religious groups. Inspired by Lachmann’s musicological studies, Palestinian artist Jumana Manna travels through Israel and the Palestinian territories of today with recordings from the programme. What do these songs sound like now when performed by Moroccan, Kurdish, or Yemenite Jews, by Samaritans, members of the urban and rural Palestinian communities, Bedouins and Coptic Christians?
Direction
Manna's patient, poetic excavation of contested sound
Sound
The original Lachmann recordings are ghostly time capsules
Editing
Seamless dialogue between 1930s archives and present-day performers
Director
Jumana Manna
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Robert Lachmann's original radio broadcasts were recorded on fragile shellac discs; many were damaged or lost during WWII.
Manna filmed in locations where some musicians cannot legally travel to hear each other perform — the edit becomes the only possible meeting space.
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