Sahel Sounds

Zerzura is a feature-length ethnofiction shot in the Sahara desert. Mixing folktales and documentary, the film follows a young man from Niger who leaves home in search of an enchanted oasis.

Prince goes Sahel in this colorful homage to Purple Rain. Set among the sub-Saharan Tuareg people, and reputedly the first feature film in their Tamashek language (which has no word for "purple," hence the title). Resplendent in a purple robe and matching chopper, smoking hot guitarist Mdou Moctar arrives in a music-mad Niger town and sets about wooing a local beauty, clashing with his pious father, and fencing with the jealous king of the local scene (Kader Tanoutanoute, as wily and dapper as Morris Day) until their climactic six-string shootout.