As part of our ongoing focus on the writer and composer Paul Bowles, we’ll be showcasing Mohamed Ulad-Mohand’s short documentary An American in Tangier over the next two weeks. Made in the sunset years of Bowles’ life, the film sees the eccentric author reminisce on how he ended up in Morocco.

Chock-full of anecdotes about Bowles’ wayward expeditions across the Moroccan countryside, Ulad-Mohand’s film details the adventurous spirit that led the wordsmith to travel great distances to record regional music and histories. Mixing interviews with Bowles in the comfort of his home alongside recreations of his key memories from his time in Morocco, An American in Tangier shifts between past and present, creating an expansive portrait of a man whose life was made up of countless tall tales.

“I did not choose to live in Tangier permanently. It happened. My visit was meant to be of short duration…. I grew lazy and put off departure.” PAUL BOWLES 

 

Humble and taciturn in character, Bowles shields how exactly it is he landed in Tangier and fell in love with its surroundings toward the start of Ulad-Mohand’s film. But, it’s a testament to the great trust the two artists had for one another that Bowles ends up waxing poetic about the beaches, kif, music, and people that made him ditch his hometown in favor of a then-recondite seaside city. Asked if he’d ever return to New York near the end of his life, he told The Paris Review: “To live where and to do what?…. It’s cold in New York.”

Mohamed Ulad-Mohand was born in Asilah, Morocco, in 1966. An admirer of the French New Wave, he moved to Paris in 1985 to study film and become “the Eric Rohmer or Jean-Luc Godard of Morocco.” Soon after, he directed An American in Tangiers and founded Azilah Productions, through which he produced over 30 films. More recently, his documentary Hercules contre Hèrmes (2012), about a Moroccan peasant caught in a land dispute with the heir to the famous French fashion house, earned him widespread acclaim and Best Feature-length Documentary from Trophées Francophones du Cinéma.

Text written by Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer. Special thanks to Mohamed Ulad-Mohand, Amaal Meftouh Ezzeyany, Angelina Feronti, Nino LeLuyer, Courtney Muller, and Isabelle Wekstein.