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Film poster

Looking for Muhyiddin

A film about the search for Sheikh Muhyiddin alias Ibn ʿArabi
(now available to watch online)


by
Nacer Khemir

    Overview

    A stunning film by Tunisian film director Nacer Khemir (Wanderers of the Desert 1984, The Dove's Lost Necklace 1991, Bab 'Aziz 2005, Sheherazade 2011, Yasmina 2013, etc.). 

    Returning home to bury his mother, a son makes a promise to his father that he will seek out the spiritual master Sheikh Muhyiddin. During his quest he comes across various companions of the Sheikh, and discovers the teachings of the mystical master.

    Under the guidance of his master, the man travels from Oxford to Granada, Seville to Fez, Murcia to Istanbul, Cordoba to Konya, New York to Sanaa, and finally from Tunis to Damascus. At each stage he meets friends of the Sheikh, who talk about him, each in their own language –  Arabic, Spanish, English, French, Italian and Turkish.

    You can find the film online HERE

    I wanted to thank you for this wonderful film! I thought I'd only skim through it, and ended up carefully following it all, even going back often to re-hear this or that particularly fascinating section... The combination of just the right excerpts with the images of the seeker and all the monuments and beauties of the world around him constantly returns us to the living "Presence" and the real unities that flow from that reality. And as one moves along, there is not so much repetition as a kind of cumulative "synergy" in the gradually shifting perspectives on the Shaykh, his teaching, and the many complementary ways those words continue to resonate so fully and creatively now, many centuries later... I found myself particularly moved by the words of the Yemeni poet interviewed in the library, as he recounted how he first encountered Ibn ʿArabi: there was something so primordial and real in his account of who and what is a real "poet", and his description certainly expands to cover cinema and this extraordinarily dense and moving work.

    Prof. James W. Morris, Dept. of Theology, Boston College
    Imprint: Anqa Publishing

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