In memory of the 680 A.D. slaughter of Al-Husayn, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad, a yearly commemoration of ‘Âshûrâ' takes place in Lebanon. In Jalal Toufic's rigorous video, footage of the accompanying rituals are intercut with related blessings and prayers, as well as lamentations and elegiac music, all presented in extended takes with no commentary. To these events are added recorded interviews with Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida, and a classroom lecture by the filmmaker himself. Without directly addressing ‘Âshûrâ', their considerations open up our experience of the commemoration. One of the final scenes takes place at the end of the ten-day ceremony when participants lacerate themselves with swords. This act helps maintain the memory not only of the past, but of the future, in particular the promise to await the redeemer, the twelfth Imam. Hovering between a theoretical exploration and an ethnographic documentation, between excess and minimalism, ‘Âshûrâ' is a fascinating examination of the relationship between rituals, memory, and history.