Ifriqiyya Electrique

Banga of Tozeur, adorcist and possession ritual

François R. Cambuzat & Gianna Greco
Concert film
(France) 
* A Trans-Aeolian Transmission production.

Guitars and computers are used to communicate with demons in a reimagining of an adorcist ritual.

Your personal devil has taken possession of your soul, sliding under your skin and claiming your body. Your pain and suffering give proof of the spirit’s presence. The Banga healing community arrives with dances, qraqebs and tablas, bringing fire, benzoin and water to unleash your wild side in a frantic ritual that will only end when you have lost all your senses. From the farthest reaches of the desert to modern urban nightclubs, the need to let go, lose oneself, be set free… transcends communities, borders and imaginations.

This healing ritual of possession and trance has been passed on from descendants of enslaved Black people sold in North Africa by the first Arab colonizers centuries ago, for a veritable syncretism of animism and Islam.

More than just a concert film, Ifriqiyya Electrique is a possession ritual that unfolds before your very eyes, as Musicians Francois R. Cambuzat and Gianna Greco invite you to take part in their transcendent ceremony. For years, these artists mingled with Tunisia’s Djerid desert community, recording, filming and composing in the company of musician-healers, guardians of mysterious portals between worlds. Not a note or tempo has been altered for this musical and anthropological experience.

Ifriqiyya Electrique’s radical experiment may well change your perspective on life. Blood and sweat will run together, the point of no return will be crossed. Now it’s your turn. Nothing will ever be the same again.