December 2023
Konya, Turkey

A film by Vincent Moon
Produced by Petites Planètes, Rana Gorgani, Souffle Collectif
Images & sounds by Vincent Moon
Filmed at the Mevlana Cultural Center, Konya

« It’s a packed evening - the most spectacular event of the Seb-I Arus week is happening: the very large and official Sema of Konya’s Mevlana Cultural Center. Sema means “listening”, a notion of divine prayer while whirling infinitely, and is a central part of the Sufi practices. But I never saw such a gigantic one - 37 dervishes are on. The arena is what a modern circus could look like, and there is a strange and beautiful interaction in between the super show and the mass - it all starts with a collective prayer, and ends with it. The music is gorgeous, the dances and phases of the rite perfectly articulated. Turkish Sufi power for the masses - quite fascinating. »

A film of the collection “Impressions from Konya” - 10 short films on Sufi ceremonies in Konya, recorded in December 2023 during the Seb-i Arus, the week celebrating the 750
years of the voyage to the stars of Rumi, the Mevlana 

WATCH THE COMPLETE PLAYLIST • IMPRESSIONS FROM KONYA •

10 films from the official and impressive Sema ceremony with 37 whirling dervishes to the long nights of dancing at Hiçhane or outside the mausoleum, from various collaborations of Sufi dancer Rana Gorgani with Ozgur Baba or Sadegh Azmand to entrancing circles all over. A cinema trip into the heart of modern and ancient sufism.