Izza Genini integrates a study of the Moroccan land, light, architecture and peoples into her film about music, which is similarly integrated into every aspect of Moroccan life. Morocco, Body and Soul traces the influences on Moroccan music of its Arab neighbors and of other Mediterranean cultures, most notably Spain, in three diverse musical portraits. Abdelsadek Chekara and his orchestra are among the most faithful interpreters of Arab Andalusian music, performing centuries-old noubas which hauntingly recall the mixture of Christian, Islamic and Jewish influences in Arab-dominated Andalusia. Fatno bent El Hocine is a cheika, a female troubadour whose aita (literally, "outcry") is comparable to the lament of the Blues. Finally, the sanctuary commemorating the founding of the first Islamic kingdom of Morocco in the eighth century still draws Sufi pilgrims who dance, entranced, to the sounds of oboes and drums.