Muezzin

The sound of the muezzin’s voice calling the faithful to their morning prayers slowly awakens the 11 million inhabitants of Istanbul. Despite the fact that many muezzins have been replaced by CD players and speakers mounted atop minarets, there is still great interest in this profession. Each year, Turkey hosts a prestigious competition for the best muezzin, and the Austrian filmmaker followed its dramatic progress from two perspectives: Habil Öndes, one of the competition judges and a specialist in the call to prayer, offers an analytical approach, while the competition between his two students, Halit Aslan and Isa Aydin, to advance to the prestigious Pan-Turkish finals, introduces an element of tension into the story. Brameshuber’s film investigates the phenomenon of individuality within Islamic culture and seeks an answer to the question of whether a muezzin can be considered as a kind of artist or merely as an instrument of God.

The screening will be held with personel presence of leading Czech arabist and islamist, profesor of Charles University, Luboš Kropáček! The discussion will follow the screening. The screening is in partnership with the Austrian Cultural Forum Prague.