11 Hours, 5 Films
Feb 10 2008 | Views 99 |
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Tags: African films Madame Brouette Nha Fala Finye Djeli Sarraounia
Tags: African films Madame Brouette Nha Fala Finye Djeli Sarraounia
Beginning at ten in the morning, over a period of 11 hours I watched 5 enchanting African films, not in the comfort of home, but in the delightfully cozy Eros preview theatre seated in a reclining wicker chair, that would have looked more appropriate on a beachfront. The films were from different African countries – Guinea Bissau, Mali, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Burkina Faso and used languages such as Dioula, Bambara, Peul, Kabuverdianu besides French. They told stories of suffering and superstition but with strong undercurrents of promise and hope.
Music is a powerful leitmotif in all the five films. The Guinea Bissau film Nha Fala (My Voice), my pick from the day’s five, is in fact a musical that would put Bollywood and Broadway to shame for its vivacity and joie de vivre. It narrates the story of Vita, a girl brought up by her mother with the superstitious notion that singing will take away her life due to a family curse. Vita finally ends up singing to please her boyfriend and then stages her own mock funeral to convince her mother that it is a baseless superstition. The Senegalese film Madame Brouette employs the Sutradhars, who break out into song every so often, to take the story forward. The haunting refrains from the almost epic Burkina Faso film Sarraounia and the Ivory Coast love story Djeli will keep ringing in the ears long after the film has ended.
3 out of the 5 films had clichéd themes, but the treatment was not melodramatic as in our bollywood and the characters displayed far more spunk in coming t terms with their crises. The conflict resolution showed far more grit and candour than one is accustomed to see in our films. This will be a Sunday hard to erase from my memory.
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