Red Dunes Of The Merzouga Desert In Morocco | TRACKS

there's a way to make an entrance my destiny it was now a conspiracy of witches download veeli today [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the light in morocco plays with the landscapes it circles them lingers brings them to life it shimmers behind every ridge behind each cloud [Music] in the vast expanse of the melzough desert a new landscape unfolds behind each dune [Music] shaped by the wind and sculpted by the sun these sand dunes create a different picture with each step it is here in this setting of red dunes on the edge of the sahara where emberek lives a camel driver since childhood he knows a desert by heart he has travelled each of these dunes from village to village oasis to oasis [Music] as a child he and his father led their caravan of dromedaries on a nomadic lifestyle in those days there was still rains and grazing [Music] they could rear their livestock and sell them on the markets of the great south today embark's life is not what it was before he is proud to share his memories and to recount the lives of his forebears with passing travelers [Music] between countries [Music] [Music] not so long ago the caravan's route ran through the village of tamadenite [Music] the market was once colorful and bustling attracting traders in livestock dates and cloth but year on year inch by inch the desert has gained ground driven by the southerly wind the red sand has swallowed up the earth houses the village is now choked in sand the inhabitants have left and the market has fallen silent [Music] when i was little i would go with my father [Music] [Music] [Music] seen the desert change and drought set in across the great south along with other nomads he now lives in the village of merzugal with his family so his children can go to school in the red sand dunes he continues to relive the stories of his childhood with a whiff of legend nowadays certain nomads have decided to move to the city but i'm fine here well okay it's so beautiful god has and i thank god [Music] the atlas mountains offer ever-changing scenery [Music] from the depths of the wadi's river valleys to the highest summits a fresh majestic landscape endlessly unfolds when the sun is at its zenith the lines and contours become sharper and the colours of the land become radiant [Music] as if in a finely detailed painting the tiny silhouettes of the people and livestock are lost in the vastness of the landscapes [Music] the red of the earth symbolizes virility and power all the men of the village are horsemen the chief of the tiborida troupe a warrior demonstration which dates back to the tribal conflicts it involves the bravery of the rider the power of the animal and gun shots every day shell gum trains his youngest son to become a tiberidae horseman [Music] tighten the straps [Music] has been learning this traditional warrior art since the age of eight he has perfect control over his horse but before becoming a horseman in the troop he must learn to shoot [Music] so [Music] [Music] i'm doing the same with my children this year abdeller is training hard to be able to take part in the barood the climax of the race involving coordinated rifle fire by all the riders go on [Music] he has to be able to release his horse's bridle at a gallop and spin his rifle over his head [Music] for the occasion abdellah has put on his body costume like all the other men he says his prayers and slips the quran into his bag to bring him luck today hadella is about to join his father's troop and he will then be considered a man [Music] is recognized and highly respected by people [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the north of morocco the riders fire into the air but in tetraren the final gunshot is aimed into the ground [Applause] this is because during the tribal wars in the sahara the enemy hid in the sand of the dunes [Music] is proud of his son abdellah has proved himself he will soon accompany the troop to the forthcoming museum the village festival during which the agility and prowess of the tiberidae horsemen are honored [Music] the royal city of fez is the cultural and spiritual capital of morocco like cordoba or istanbul it is filled with arab and illusion architecture in a wide palette of colours [Music] in the labyrinth of the medina listed by unesco as a world heritage site the mosaics the marble the stucco and precious wood facades rub shoulders with merchant shops [Music] its narrow lively streets are the city's soul [Music] at the heart of the old town the tanneries form the backbeat to life families of tanners have been working here since the 12th century adam the first man is said to be molded from red earth if any place reflects that primal image it could be here [Music] for the city's hundreds of tanners red is considered the most noble color it can appear as light brown or a full red [Music] abdullah and his father worked together from drawn until the wedzine's last call to prayer at the end of the day most of the people who work here are families of tenants if a new tenant arrives they give him a tank right away so he can work everyone helps each other out we're like a big family this park is ground for a long time until it produces this red color and lastly we add a dye based on poppy flowers abdullahi's father has been repeating these same techniques for almost 50 years from selecting the raw hides to selling the finished leather the process takes more than a month once dyed and dried in the sun the hives are stretched the leather becomes supple and is then ready to be sold in the souk at auction when he was little my son went to school but in the end he stopped he wasn't doing anything so i brought him here with me to the tanner i taught him the trade of tanner to start with they gave him a bit of money then i taught him to sell the hides i passed on to him all i know now he knows how to do it all [Music] in the hustle and bustle of the royal city the cries of the merchants resound amid the rabble when night falls the crowded streets and alleyways fall silent gradually like a jewel in a precious case the whole city becomes golden [Music] heading to the south a new voyage awaits [Music] for centuries the valley of unila was the only route linking the great south to marrakech [Music] through these red landscapes merchants caravans from africa passed loaded with precious objects slaves and gold the region of telugu echoes the splendor of a glorious age linked to the power of the glowy tribe which ruled over the unila valley its agriculture and its salt mines in the 18th century here the hamria the red earth blends in with the buildings in villages and the monumental edifices of the kaspars [Music] set in a landscape with a mediterranean or tuscan feel the palace of teluet dominates the valley this casbah is like a dream a mirage it still retains the splendor of a bygone age its walls are still imbued with the soul of the glowwy family whose powerful and respected ancestor is like a great gatsby of the desert in the 1920s parties were held here worthy of scenes from the novel ravel churchill majoraille and hemingway all visited this hispano-moorish marvel lost in an oriental dream and charmed by the spectacular vision of morocco [Music] so [Laughter] [Music] not lawrence just lawrence you are mad let me take your rotten bloody picture for the rotten bloody newspapers the landscapes of the great south have always attracted the greatest filmmakers [Music] orson welles alfred hitchcock and martin scorsese have all shot some of their most celebrated films in morocco especially in wazasat the gateway to the desert drawn by the arid landscapes and the red canyons which looked like the american west at the start of the 1960s lawrence of arabia was the first in a series of international productions shot in this region of morocco with peter o'toole galloping through the desert followed by thousands of extras on their drummers and omar sharif charging up the steps of the fortified village of ayet which has since become one of the most famous gaza's in the world [Music] as is dreamed of working on film shoots he became a set technician and is always amazed whenever he participates in films seen worldwide the greatest producers and directors are inspired to film in morocco and in particular there are so many impressive natural locations and desert landscapes in this region that's a strong pole for the filmmaking world [Music] all the kids in the wazizek region dream of seeing a shoot or taking part in a movie [Music] the three film studios in wazazat cover hundreds of hectares since they were founded in the early 1980s their sets have welcomed hundreds of shoots from feature films to tv series advertisements and documentaries [Music] for the productions of asterix and oberlicks mission cleopatra gladiator and babel the town had to build hotels schools and infrastructure adapted to the world of cinema these days the studios are less active but for the region's extras students and technicians wazuzat will always be was a wood the hollywood of the desert when i took part in my first film boom we took a dim view of it once filming on the jewel of the nile was finished it started right away on the james bond movie followed by the sheltering sky they're all great films [Music] thanks to the movies i have work as an actor because people think i look like a man who's known throughout the world [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] sketches outlines sharpens silhouettes this light inspires the imagination the impalpable the dreamlike [Music] tonight the earth is red the sky is red and the air too [Music] soon when the sun rises another picture with different colors will appear on the horizon [Music] you

Channel: TRACKS - Travel Documentaries

Views: 26,120

Keywords: Ouarzazate, TRACKS - Travel Documentaries, authentic experiences, global journeys, hidden gems, historical skills, iconic cities, remarkable landscapes, remote locations exploration, sustainable tourism, traditional architecture, traditional customs, traditional skills, travel adventures, travel discoveries, travel documentaries, travel storytelling, vibrant cities, world cultures exploration

Id: vitXy4AQUJE

Length: 26min 30sec (1590 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 19 2022