House in the Fields

A man remembers his past during a journey that takes him back to his country of origin.

The intersecting destinies of three people — a Moroccan-Iraqi writer searching for his brother, the lover whom he left behind, and a young orphan on the run — create an incisive and unsettling portrait of a land riven by violence and fundamentalism.

A fraternity of horse-riders travels across a Central Moroccan landscape of Saints’ shrines and wheat fields, of ancient cities and hidden rural communities, to participate in the ancient equestrian ritual of Tbourida. This is a story of fraternal bonds, of community, belief, and of the transformative powers of performance. Fiction and reality become one: the farmer becomes a general, the young man becomes a brave prince, the metal worker becomes a hero. Bardi is a choral film, sung by different men and boys. It is an ode to a different kind of community, a closed world of transmission and belief, where the forging of the self is played out in a theater of horses and of men.