Bardi

Filmmaker and photographer Tala Hadid immersed herself in the rugged, fraternal world of a group of horse-riders in central Morocco for this visually rapturous work that merges portraiture and fabulation. With thrilling camerawork, Hadid accompanies the men as they take part in Tbourida, an equestrian military ritual that dates to the 16th century and allows them to transform into new personas. As the itinerant group rides across the country, Hadid captures with a mix of intimacy and epic grandeur their geographically expansive yet emotionally enclosed universe, with its codes of behavior and fully embodied performances of masculinity. Hadid, whose previous films include the short Your Dark Hair Ihsan (NYFF43) and the feature House in the Fields, about the Amazigh of Morocco, is fascinated with how people within communities encounter tradition, myth, and the self; Bardi is a majestic work of earthy imagination that transcends time and landscape.