A MAGICAL SUBSTANCE FLOWS INTO ME

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?

When a true fascination for history meets the sounds of the rababa, the saz, the oud and tin cans, a cultural diversity emerges that subverts the distinction between "Arab" and "Jewish". There are no national borders here, only different kitchens where people make music together – with their guests, while cooking, while someone makes the coffee. Until the music becomes so infectious you can’t help but dance along.

* Official Selection, Berlin Film Festival
* Official Selection, Art of the Real, Film Society of Lincoln Center

“Fascinating. The carefully framed shots of her subjects, often framed by windows, porches, tent-poles or kitchen shelves, transform their meager surroundings into the intimate stages for their soulful musical performances.” – The Forward

“Beautiful! The ‘magical substance’ of music becomes not so much a romanticization of its ‘healing’ powers but rather a profound recognition that conflict is something felt, experienced, and performed. Perhaps this is the wisdom Manna offers not only to Lachmann, but to those of us practicing musicology in the present; herein lies not a limit to but rather an affirmation of the potential and value of our work—the work we specifically are equipped to do—to both the public and the humanities at-large.” – Musicology Now