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My Favourite Film
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Dr
Frances Harding: BOROM SARRET |
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 Dr
Frances Harding lectures in African Drama, Film and Media at the School
of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Film: Borom Sarret
Director: Ousmane Sembene
1963; 20 minutes; black and white
Borom
Sarret remains a favourite, not just because of its special place
in the history of African film-making, but also because it is an engrossing
account of a day in the life of a poor cart driver in Dakar, which
holds the attention of the viewer throughout.
It doesn't preach and isn't didactic or judgemental. In these days of well paid 'filming for development', it remains a model of chronicling and dramatising reality which highlights injustice without boring the viewer.
At times comic, at others poignant, it presents an unjust world in which the individual seems powerless in the face of events. Nevertheless it chooses to focus on individual choice, for example, when the cart driver snatches moments of pleasure as a griot sings his praises. His self-respect hungering for reinforcement through the recitation of his noble genealogy, he parts with his hard-earned money as payment. And, at the end of the day, penniless and eventually without even his cart, he reflects on the day's misfortunes, and questions his decisions, searching for who to blame. On his return, his wife goes out, promising that there will be food to eat that night. This was radical positioning of women ahead of its time and remains a powerful statement. |
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Hugh
Quarshie: SARRAOUNIA |
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Hugh Quarshie is an actor from Ghana. He also presents on BBC World
Service radio
Film: Sarraounia
Director: Med Hondo (FESPACO First Prize in 1987, Burkina Faso, Mauritania)
I saw Sarraounia many years ago. It left a very strong impression on me because it was the first African movie I saw which seemed to be prepared to take an epic story and film it. Until then the movies by African film-makers, possibly because of lack of resources, tended to be localised, small-scale affairs. Epic stories were usually made by European film-makers, who used Africa as a kind of exotic landscape against which white European protagonists played out their psycho-dramas. Voices were rarely given to African protagonists.
Then, the story of Sarraounia herself, being a queen, a woman leading male warriors, echoed the key-role played by women throughout African history. Sarraounia was also beautiful to look at. It left a feeling of satisfaction. I had seen something that was not only politically uplifting but also cinematically satisfying.
Sarraounia marked for me a point when African film-makers realised that there were exciting stories around that could be told excitingly.
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Ofeibea
Quist-Arcton: HERITAGE AFRICA |
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 Ofeibea
Quist-Arcton of allAfrica.com is the Presenter of Artbeat during FESPACO.
Film: Heritage
Africa
Director:
Kwaw Ansah
My first experience of the pan-African
film festival, FESPACO, was in 1989, when Heritage Africa, by the
Ghanaian director Kwaw Ansah, carried off the prestigious first prize,
Yennenga Stallion, in Ouagadougou.
The atmosphere in dusty Ouaga, the elation of the winning cineaste
and the goodwill for the first English-language FESPACO laureate swept
us all up in a wave of emotion. I remember thinking Heritage Africa
should have been half its length, but the storyline was topical: Africans
should be proud to be themselves and there were some good laughs and
wonderful lines, with a particularly stunning and moving performance
by Alexandra Duah.
Let me add that, to this day, I find the musical score of Med Hondo's
film Sarraounia - a Burkina Faso/Mauritania collaboration - haunting
and still hum it. The sight of the amazonian warriors filling the
screen, with the music welling up in my ears, will remain with me.
And, the film LA VIE EST BELLE with the Congolese crooner, Papa Wemba,
in the lead role, with catchy tunes and a pacy, punchy script - GROOVY!
There's not enough time to mention Gaston Kabore, Souleymane Cisse
and, Haile Gerima and from the diaspora, Raoul Peck...I could go on
and on ! |
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Farai
Sevenzo: YEELEN |
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Farai Sevenzo is a filmaker and BBC World Service presenter.
Film: Yeelen
Director: Souleymane Cisse
(Mali, 1987)
When I first saw this film, I stayed in the cinema long after the credits had rolled and the cleaners were cleaning the drinks and popcorn off the floor.
Suleyman Cisse's classic was to me an ode to the African imagination, beautifully shot and carrying with it the kind of narrative that makes up so much of African history - the past, with its armies and kings, hard to recreate in this age of McDonalds and the Global Village.
Yeelen was purely African, it made sense to see it at an African film
festival. Where it lacked in narrative strength, it made up for it
visually -- so addictive without really trying.
The film is set in a powerful Mali empire during the 13th century. According to California Newsreel, the film's distributor: "The film tells the story of Nianankoro, a young warrior, destined to destroy a corrupt older elite, the secret Komo cult and with it his father, and necessarily, himself. And so we are transformed to a world of miracles, magic potions, fetishes - in a time when men could summon lightning, where dogs could walk backwards at a wizard's bidding, and women purified themselves by washing in milk."
Filmmakers on the continent strive for this, this spilling out of
the African imagination, by using images that consume us in our awe
of fetishes and love of animism and a realm of reality far removed
from the one we know. Yeelen is the film that said to me "There are
no rules - if you think your Africa is like this, write it this way."
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Olivier
Barlet: TOUKI BOUKI |
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 Olivier
Barlet, French journalist and author of "African Cinemas, Decolonizing
the Gaze".
Film: Touki Bouki
Director: Djibril Diop Manbety
Senegal, 1973
Made in 1974, Touki Bouki is an historic film, an avant-garde film. This
film is astonishing in the way it has been made. In Touki Bouki images -
and not only dialogue - carry a meaning. Touki Bouki has had a strong
influence on a whole generation of African film-makers.
The story is about two students in Dakar, Mori and Anta. They only have one
dream, moving to Paris. The song "Paris, Paris, a small corner of Paradise"
is actually the sound-track's leitmotiv. Touk -Bouki describes Mori and
Anta's quest to get enough money for their trip to Europe. In the end, Anta
will get on the boat to France. But at the last minute Mori will change his
mind. He will jump back on his moped and drive towards his destiny.
The central issue of the movie has often been misinterpreted. Most critics
feel it is about a conflict between tradition and modernity. I rather think
that Touki Bouki is about how living on the margins of society helps the
main characters in their quest for their roots.
Both Anta and Mori are mavericks. Anta is a bit of a tom-boy. Mori is larger
than life. At some point he is shown, naked, standing on the top of a car,
acting as if he was famous, as if a crowd was cheering for him.
Touki Bouki basically says that one has to be different to be able to deal
with modernity.
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