After seeing ‘Walk It Home’, the new film about Beirut blues band, The Wanton Bishops, I was at a loss to describe it. Quasi-documentary, the film shows ‘the day(s) in the life’ of Nader Mansour and Eddy Ghossein as they travel around the Mississippi Delta. The Wanton Bishops is a blues band formed in the heart of Beirut. The film sees their pilgrimage to the birthplace of the blues: the Deep South.
You live vicariously for an hour and a half watching the film but instead of being merely a voyeur, you find that it is absolutely intoxicating and seductive. The film is real. It’s raw. It’s the blues!
As we are reminded throughout the film, the blues is an “art form that derived out of the necessities of life”; it is an attitude and way of life. Following The Wanton Bishops to the plantations along the Mississippi Delta and into the soul of New Orleans, it’s not just any road trip you are privvy to.
Instead we see all the travails of life sewn back into music through the eyes of two Lebanese musicians. We see the southern states in all of its unedited glory and we also see the streets of Beirut. The (metaphysical and literal) juxtaposition between these countries – shown via comparative footage – is somehow bridged through this passionate music. The Wanton Bishops breathe life back into the blues in their own way and perhaps, more importantly, in a contemporary attitude.
With beautiful, iconic shots intermingled with footage of locals living the blues, the film is an immersive tribute that will not only make you want to clap after every performance but most likely pick up a harmonica as soon as possible!
Riveting and refreshing, be sure to catch the film on Red Bull TV from 29th October.
The Wanton Bishops “WALK IT HOME” – Trailer from Beija Films on Vimeo.