Page 101 - Esquire - USA (Winter 2020)

“JE SUIS CHRISTOPHER KIRKLEY. Je cherche
Opposite: Mdou
votre musique depuis longtemps.” Moctar performing
Moctar couldn’t place the accent when in San Francisco.
Kirkley called in his halting French to say Right: Kirkley and
he’d spent two years looking for him. He Moctar on set.
had never heard an American speaking
French and figured his cousin was play-
ing a joke on him. Kirkley was skeptical,
too, unsure of whether he had found the
right Mdou. But when Moctar played a
few bars of his familiar song, which was
called “Tahoultine,” Kirkley practically
leaped through the phone. “Let’s record
a bunch of music,” he suggested. “And
then we’ll see if we can have enough to
make a record.”
Twenty-seven hours of flights and a
sixteen-hour drive through the desert
later, Kirkley pulled into Agadez. He made
his way past the bustling market and sil-
versmiths to find Moctar, who’d been shot the trailer for their Kickstarter cam-
living there and playing weddings to get paign. Against the driving beat of Moctar’s
by. Kirkley bore a gift: a jet-black Fender guitar, it showed him, dressed in a purple
guitar, left-handed, of course. Moctar, robe and turban, riding his purple motor-
who’d never seen, much less played, a left- Kirkley showed them Purple Rain. Moctar cycle around Agadez and performing for
handed guitar, couldn’t believe his eyes. marveled at Prince’s face-melting guitar throngs of Tuareg in the desert. Though
“You have left-handed electric guitars in solos and laughed uproariously at the Kirkley had never directed and Moctar
your country?!” he asked, beaming. Kirk- sexy-motherfuckery of his writhing shirt- had never acted, the short trailer had an
ley watched in awe as Moctar shredded. less onstage. When Apollonia jumped artfulness and infectious energy. There
The two couldn’t have come from more topless into a lake, Moctar turned to Kirk- was just one problem: the title. They
different worlds, but they connected like ley and deadpanned, “We can’t do this wanted to name the movie some variation
long-lost bros. They spent hot days and scene.” Prince wasn’t his style, but he of Purple Rain, but there is no word for
dusty nights drinking tea, playing music, loved the idea of making a semiautobi- purple in Tamashek. Instead, they called
and trading ideas. “It was just like hanging ographical film that could bring Tuareg the film Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai,
out,” Kirkley says. “If you feel inspired, music and culture to the world. or, in English, Rain the Color of Blue with a
play some music. If you don’t feel
inspired, you don’t play music.
If you feel like you want to talk,
you talk.” Before long, Kirk-
ley’s audio recorder was filled
with new Moctar songs, which
he released on his blog-turned-
label, Sahel Sounds, splitting
the profits fifty-fifty. The album

needed some other way to break through They Come, it told the story of a Tuareg cast and crew on Facebook, but the locals
the noise. musician, Moctar, who must overcome a feared this weird rock ’n’ roll film would
Kirkley had a crazy idea. Moctar’s life difficult upbringing and a cutthroat music be sacrilegious, if not pornographic.
story had natural drama: the disapprov- scene to make it as an artist. They culled People would sign up for a role, then
ing parents, the competitive music scene, stories from locals, like the Tuareg who never show up for auditions. But, one by
and this prodigious ax master coming into told Kirkley of the time his grandmother one, they got their cast onboard: a beau-
his own. Kirkley told Moctar it reminded burned his guitar because she thought tiful Agadez merchant, Rhaicha Ibrahim,
him of a famous American music film it was evil, then made him dinner. They to play the Apollonia role, Moctar’s love
Courtesy Christopher Kirkley ing Moctar and his music instead—all that were too risqué for Moctar’s Muslim Day–style rival; and one of Moctar’s older
from 1984, Prince’s Purple Rain. They
interest; Kader Tanoutanoute, a guitar-
struggled with how to adapt iconic scenes
ist friend of Moctar’s, to play his Morris
in Purple Rain, such as the skinny-dipping,
could film a tribute to the movie featur-
brothers, Abdoulaye, to play his father.
community.
shot in Tamashek, no less. Kirkley said
it’d be a novel way to set Moctar apart
“Can we show kissing?” Kirkley asked.
The moment they started their ten-
day shoot in February 2014, the trouble
“No,” Moctar said.
from his peers. Moctar had one question:
began. They fired up Moctar’s purple
“Hugging?”
“Who’s Prince?”
Later, Moctar and a couple dozen other
motorcycle only to have it break down in
Nope.
curious locals crammed into his house as
In September 2013, Kirkley and Moctar
a thick cloud of black (continued on page 117)