by Robert Ham
![film-zerzura.jpg]()
Local ethnomusicologist Christopher Kirkley’s first film was ambitious enough: Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai was a loose remake of Purple Rain, filmed in Niger, starring African songwriter/guitarist Mdou Moctar, and entirely in the Tuareg language. But for his second feature, Zerzura, Kirkley has gone even further—slipping a tab of Jodorowsky under his tongue and creating a strange, mystical road movie.