Christiane Kouraogo: Le Retour, une fable initiatique très Western | The Return, a rite of passage tale, very Western - critique by/par Ansoumana Dasylva (africine.org)

Christiane Kouraogo: Le Retour, une fable initiatique très Western

The Return, a rite of passage tale, very Western

Critique by/par Ansoumana Dasylva

Isabelle Christiane Kouraogo

Le Retour (The Return)
Côte d'Ivoire - 17min - fiction

Critique by/par Ansoumana Dasylva
Source: africine.org (publ. 06 jan 2022)

Translated from French by Beti Ellerson, an African Women in Cinema Blog collaboration with Africine.org.
Version originale en français: (http://africine.org/critique/le-retour-une-fable-initiatique-tres-western/15285)

Salimata, a Senegalese woman studying in Morocco, decides to return to her country to see her mother who is in critical condition. What does this perilous journey, upon which she embarks with little means, have in store for her?

Passionate about cinema and digital technology since her childhood, Isabelle Kouraogo, from Côte d'Ivoire, pursued directing. After starting her career in television, and wanting to devote herself to cinema, she studied at the École Supérieure des Arts Visuels de Marrakech (ESAV). 

 

This is perhaps what inspired her film Le Retour, where we find a young Senegalese woman who hitchhikes from Morocco to cross the Mauritanian border to be with her mother who is ill. During this return to her country, a journey upon which she embarks with no financial resources, she confronts the fear of unknown drivers, starting with Rachid who gives her a ride in his van, initiates a conversation and begins to make ambiguous proposals. On a winding and deserted road, a sort of rodeo of feelings, both wary and sad, emerge within Salimata.


She has courage and determination. But between the skeleton pendant which hangs in the truck and the revolver spotted in the glove compartment, there is a feeling of death that threatens her. Isabelle Kouraogo draws on the codes of both the western and Hitchcockian suspense to orchestrate the confrontation between the two protagonists, who for the most part remain in the closed environment of the driver's cabin, up until a tense altercation. It is then that a decisive reversal occurs which makes Le Retour a rite of passage tale right to the end, which is also very western. 

Tense, poignant, fascinating and very sober, the film keeps us in suspense, providing us with a subtle reversal that highlights the contribution of Black cultures in a society that is losing its moral values.

Pélagie Ng’onana : a critique of the film "Buried" by Françoise Ellong | une critique du film "Enterrés" (Africine.org)

Pélagie Ng’onana : a critique of the film "Buried" | une critique du film "Enterrés" by/de Françoise Ellong

Source: africine.org. Publ: 06/06/2021
Translated from French by Beti Ellerson, an African Women in Cinema Blog collaboration with Africine.org.

En français : http://www.africine.org/index.php/critique/enterres-de-francoise-ellong/15110

Dangerous links between religion and believers
The second dramatic feature film by the Cameroonian director marks her presence in festivals and airline entertainment with a courageous and transversal discourse on pedophilia in religious circles.

A high-angle shot following a taxi on an unpaved road. The movements of the drone sweep over the vegetation, village dwellings lined up on both sides of an apparently dead-end road. It is through this journey that Françoise Ellong invites the viewer to be part of this 88-minute adventure, which from the start reveals elements of uncertainty, of doubts and of an impasse. The little yellow car unloads its passengers at the crossroads of a village. A place that reflects as much the complexity of the characters and the situations they will go through as the uncertainty of a flourishing future. Which path to take? The question that seems to arise in the first scenes of the film will remain in the background, only to reappear at the end.

It is the journey of a lifetime, in fact, that Buried tells, at a unique site and with unique characters. It is the tumultuous and painful course of three decades that Ndewa’s group wants to exorcise. After her first feature film Waka, Françoise Ellong is slowly returning to the huit clos. The enclosed-setting genre for which she has a particular fondness. Here, we experience the insight of the director who gains in maturity throughout her film productions.

The exact casting, accompanied by an ideal setting, transports the viewer through the orphanage where the group lived more than two decades before. The lighting quality combined with the right make-up and costumes adheres to the development of this dark day. Also, we get to know Daddy, Sister Catherine, Sister Thérèse, invisible characters who have forever impacted the lives of our five protagonists. A polished language, dialogue and refined lines are a distinctive asset--while providing an understanding of the horror: a childhood and adolescence hindered by sexual abuse, the terror of a religious environment that is supposed to provide love and security. Ellong, who also authored the screenplay, brings up a subject that is as socially weighty as it is emotional--without any scenes with the perpetrators, no flashbacks, with a tone that is meant to be universal, without details of the filming location or of the orphanage.

Everything is in the story, the staging, the setting, and to a lesser extent the music--which punctuates the intense intimate moments. Anurin Nwunembom (discovered in Nyna’s Dowry) whose superb embodiment of Ndewa, leads the event to which he invited his former companions. A few twists in its rendering in French--because of the expression in English--did not spoil the outcome. Ndewa, a complex and mysterious character receives rejoinders from Lucie Memba (Marie)--whose acting becomes increasingly essential in local productions; Emy Dany Bessong (Agnès) accustomed to the series genre, makes a remarkable entrance in cinema with the film Buried.

In her latest fiction (released at the end of 2019 and produced by Nabe-Daone Enterprises), Françoise Ellong contemplates a discourse that tests faith by questioning the Bible and religion. "Being a pastor is a profession" ... "People use and abuse the Bible", behavior that exasperates Hassane (Assala Kofane). Reuniting "friends" on the day of the funeral of the dreaded Daddy, was for Ndewa the last hope of breaking with this bitter and secreted past. Which has nonetheless left deep scars obscuring his own future and that of his friends. And to add to the intensity of the drama: the sudden appearance of Minyem (Denis Etouka) and his even more disturbing revelations about the complicity of certain members. Burying certain objects is the rule of this dangerous game, but instead it has served as an unearthing of a past full of demons.

Un critique par Pélagie Ng’onana du film Enterrés de Françoise Ellong
Liaisons dangereuses entre religion et croyants
Le second long métrage dramatique de la réalisatrice camerounaise marque sa présence dans des festivals et les compagnies aériennes avec un discours courageux et transversal sur la pédophilie en milieu religieux.

Version originale en Français. Lire l’article en intégralité sur http://www.africine.org/index.php/critique/enterres-de-francoise-ellong/15110

"Papicha: Mounia Meddour in resistance mode" | "Papicha : Mounia Meddour en mode résistance" analysis/analyse by/par Falila Gbadamassi (Africine)

"Papicha: Mounia Meddour in resistance mode" "Papicha : Mounia Meddour en mode résistance" analysis/analyse by/par Falila Gbadamassi (Africine)

In collaboration with Africine.org, translated from French by Beti Ellerson and published on the African Women in Cinema Blog.

EN FRANÇAIS : http://www.africine.org/?menu=art&no=14682

05/18/2019

To resist with needle in hand. This is the pulsating exposé that the filmmaker Mounia Meddour delivers in Papicha, the film representing Algeria at Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.

Nedjma (Lyna Khoudri) is a young Algerian student living on a university campus. In the early 1990s, Algeria saw the first hours of a civil war between the state and Islamic terrorists. The "dark decade", as it will be called later, left thousands of Algerian families in bereavement. But festivities are still going on at the start of Papicha, the first feature film by the Algerian director. With her friend Wassila (Shirine Boutella), they have quietly left the city to party and to sell the creations of Nedjma, a budding stylist, to the "papichas", the nickname for "pretty young Algerian girls". It is still the time of insouciance.

The police roadblocks and the posters pasted on the walls of the university buildings which demand that women wear the veil, nonetheless suggest that this époque will soon see its epilogue. The filmmaker alternates the scenes of a seemingly immutable day-to-day life with those indicating that because of the violence, the world of Nedjma and that of all Algerians is falling apart.

The student and her friend have the same problems as all the young women in the world. However, finding solutions is increasingly complex in a society that is becoming more and more conservative. This noxious atmosphere is a source of trauma for Nedjma, especially when tragedy arrives at her door. She then takes refuge in sewing. The needle and haik, a large fabric that Algerian women use to cover their bodies, will now be their weapons to challenge those who restrict women's rights on a daily basis. The show she intends to organise is conceived of as a political demonstration against all those extremists who want to put her and her fellow comrades in their place.

Nedjma's character is a figure of resistance like those Algerian women who hid in their famous haik, their weapons against French settlers during the war of independence. The use of this cloth brings about one of the most beautiful scenes of the film when Nedjma's mother explains it to her daughters. Mounia Meddour, inspired by the pain of exile imposed on her family by the dark decade, delivers a story to the glory of all the young girls, women and feminists who have stood up, who stand up and who rise in Algeria in order to preserve and guarantee their legitimate right to self-determination.

Papicha : Mounia Meddour en mode résistance 

Résister l'aiguille à la main. C'est la vibrante démonstration que livre la cinéaste Mounia Meddour dans Papicha, film représentant l'Algérie à Un Certain Regard au Festival de Cannes.

Nedjma (Lyna Khoudri) est une jeune étudiante algéroise qui réside en cité universitaire. Au début des années 90, l'Algérie vit les premières heures d'une guerre civile qui oppose l'Etat aux terroristes islamistes. La décennie noire, comme on l'appellera plus tard, endeuillera des milliers de familles algériennes. Mais l'heure est encore à la fête quand démarre Papicha, le premier long métrage de fiction de la réalisatrice algérienne. Avec son amie Wassila (Shirine Boutella), elles ont encore quitté la cité en douce pour aller faire la fête et vendre les créations de Nedjma, styliste en herbe, aux "papichas", surnom des "jolies jeunes filles algéroises". C'est encore le temps de l'insouciance. Lire l'intégralité de l'article @ http://www.africine.org/?menu=art&no=14682

Interview with Delphine Wil, director of the film "Missionary memories" | Entretien avec Delphine Wil, réalisatrice du film Mémoire de missionnaires - by/de Thierno I. Dia, Africine.org

Delphine Wil ©Neon Rouge Production

Interview with Delphine Wil, director of the film "Missionary memories" | Entretien avec Delphine Wil, réalisatrice du film Mémoire de missionnaires - by/de Thierno I. Dia, Africine.org 27 06 2018. 

In collaboration with Africine.org, translated from French by Beti Ellerson and published on the African Women in Cinema Blog. Image : Neon Rouge Production.

EN FRANÇAIS : http://www.africine.org/?menu=art&no=14471

Interview with Delphine Wil, director of the film Mémoire de missionnaires. Her documentary opened the festival Mis me binga 2018, Cameroon

Mémoire de missionnaires “Missionary memories” (2017) is the first documentary film by Delphine Wil. Born in Germany in 1988 of a Belgian father and a Belgian-Congolese mother, she is a filmmaker whose cultural diversity has shaped her path. She completed her studies in photography at the École de Photographie de la Ville de Bruxelles) and in journalism at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, parallel to filmmaking, she works in the information field in Francophone Africa.

She started her professional career as a radio journalist at the Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF) before moving to the audio-visual sector. She participated in a video creation workshop in Mons and in Senegal, and afterwards moved to Burkina Faso, where she works with Manivelle Productions. Mémoire de missionnaires (2017) was the opening film of the 9th edition of Mis me binga 2018, International Women’s Film Festival in Yaounde, which was held from 26-30 June 26. The film will travel to several festivals, in Europe and in Congo, with other cultural events to follow.

What motivated the making of a film about missionary memory (rather than a photo series for example or a press article)?

A film is able to mobilize sound and image and to show the behaviour, reactions, and personality of the characters. To me, the combination of all these elements seems important for this project, because it deals with a subject that may be considered sensitive. In my opinion, seeing on screen the engagement of these people at that age tells something in itself. They entrust their truth, in retrospect, as they perceive it today. Some reaffirm the prejudices of the epoch. Others are more critical. My desire was to transmit this ambivalence. To me, it seems necessary to listen to these elders, despite the fact that the information that they relay can be incriminating; because—whether we like it or not—they illustrated history. Photos or a press article would probably not have gone as far in these nuances as a film.

What does it mean for your film to be selected at Mis Be Binga and as the opening film?

It is a great honour for me to be selected at the Mis Me Binga Festival and, moreover, to see it as the opening film of the Festival, which is also the premiere for Mémoire de missionnaires, is a recompense for the work of the entire team. I am also very happy that an African festival has made this choice, because it shows that the film addresses a subject that has made an impact and, hence, it is important to discuss it on the continent. It also demonstrates the double identity of the film, both African and European; and the fact that the festival showcases the perspectives of the women filmmakers within cinematographic creation is also important to me.

The film does not seem to have been programmed at festivals in Belgium and France? Is it a choice on your part or resistance from the programmers?

The film was broadcast on television in Belgium on the RTBF and in France on Lyon Capitale TV and was accessible for two months in both countries, in addition to Switzerland, through the video-on-demand platform [VoD] Tënk. The Belgian company Neon Rouge Production that produced Mémoire de missionnaires continues to send it to many Belgian and French festivals (and beyond). The film will be screened at the Festival des cinémas d'Afrique de Toulouse (Festival of African Cinemas in Toulouse) in late August, early September. We obviously hope that there are other selections in Belgium and France. For me, the goal is for the film to be seen, wherever that may be and in any way possible.

It is clear that, for the moment, the film circulates better in African festivals than in European ones. It is difficult for me to provide an analysis in this regard. There is a certain unpredictability in the programmers’ selection process.

In Kigali (Mashariki FilmFest), you announced a trilogy around the genocide in Rwanda, what stage are you on this project?

In 2014, this trilogy project turned into two portraits, rather in the form of a report, which is accessible on my blog [in French]: https://dlphnwl.wordpress.com/.

Presently, I am writing a short fiction entitled “Au risque de se perdre” (At the risk of getting lost) that evokes the career of an African journalist, which particularly appeals to me. I co-directed with radio director and sound engineer, Jeanne Debarsy, a sound creation entitled  "Sous l'eau, les larmes du poisson qui pleure ne se voient pas" (Under water, the tears of the crying fish cannot be seen). I am also developing a new documentary project, for which I do not yet have a title.

Festival Mis me Binga, yeux de femmes en films | Women’s cinematic gaze – 2018 – by/de Thierno I. Dia

Festival Mis me Binga, yeux de femmes en films | Women’s cinematic gaze – 2018 – by/de Thierno I. Dia

Mis Me Binga 2018, Festival International de films de femmes| International Women's Film Festival, Edition 9, Yaoundé, Cameroun | Cameroon - 26-30 juin/June 2018

By/de Thierno I. Dia, Africiné Magazine, correspondant à Bordeaux pour Images Francophones, published 26 June 2018. Translated and modified from French by Beti Ellerson, in collaboration with Africine.org.

EN FRANÇAIS: http://www.imagesfrancophones.org/ficheGrosPlan.php?no=14429

The Film Festival, Mis Me Minga, literally means "The Eyes of Women", and by extension "Women's Gaze", in the Beti language of Cameroon. Founded in 2010, the international women's film festival is held in Yaoundé. "The essential criteria are that the films must be made by women or by men on themes that put women at the centre of the debate," said the festival's General Delegate, Evodie Ngueyeli.

Mémoire de missionnaires (Missionary memories) by Delphine Wil opened the 9th edition of the Cameroonian festival. The cineaste said she was honoured: "to be selected at the Mis Me Binga Festival and, moreover, to see it as the opening film of the Festival, which is also the premiere for Mémoire de missionnaires, is a recompense for the work of the entire team. I am also very happy that an African festival has made this choice, because it shows that the film addresses a subject that has made an impact and, hence, it is important to discuss it on the continent. It also demonstrates the double identity of the film, both African and European; and the fact that the festival showcases the perspectives of the women filmmakers within cinematographic creation is also important to me".

In the last century, men of the Church went to the Congo to preach the good word. In Mémoire de missionnaires the last witnesses of this epoch recount their memories. With a lucid and critical gaze at the Christianization of Africa, these carriers of memory testify to an often commented and yet unknown part of colonial history. 

Thus, the aim is not only about representations of women, here it is reconfirmed that one of the characteristics of cinematic counter-discourse is to go beyond the form of the object to that of subject; hence images by women that counterbalance the often pejorative images of women. It is about women using cinema to "speak out and give their point of view about society", explains Evodie Ngueyeli. She elaborates the history of the festival’s approach: "The need to create a women’s film festival comes from the fact that we observed that in Cameroon most women who work in the film industry prefer to settle for positions as makeup artist, costume designer, script supervisors and actresses, and yet those who take the step further, make films that mark the history of Cameroonian cinema including Josephine Ndagnou with her film Paris à tout prix, for which I remember buying a ticket to view the film, and having to wait in an endless queue. The film captured the public’s interest [25 000 entries in 3 days, author’s note]. In addition Osvalde Lewat was the laureate of the Silver Stallion at FESPACO, and Yolande Ekoumou with her film Tiga, l’heritage [2000, which got support from the OIF, author’s note]."

The Festival offered a very varied program…"This year there is a prevalence of socially engaged films: we have films about the choice of sexual orientation, the status of artists, women's difficulty in accessing water, forced marriage, democracy, etc.", the head of Mis Me Binga tells us... 

“Maki'la” by/de Machérie Ekwa Bahango, a/un film noir by/par Hassouna Mansouri (analysis/analyse)

“Maki'la” by/de Machérie Ekwa Bahango, a/un film noir by/par Hassouna Mansouri 

A collaboration with Africine.org, translated from French by Beti Ellerson. 

En français : http://africine.org/?menu=art&no=14427

Maki'la by Machérie Ekwa Bahango is a genre film with aspects drawn from the streets of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. These streets and the children who live in them, cut off from all family and social ties, are often the subject of a great deal of imagined reality; treated as sensationalised subjects, full of miserabilism and pity. The young Congolese filmmaker, who has just completed her very first feature film, constructs this subject matter into cinematographic material.

In the gangster movie genre where the hero is most often a man, Machérie Ekwa Bahango breaks with this rule from the very beginning. The hero is Maki, a young woman who fights as best she can to survive in the streets of Kinshasa. Married to Mbingazor, the leader of a gang of youth, she decides to set off on her own, finding neither satisfaction in the lifestyle of this group or in her relationship. Sent on her path by fate is Acha, another teenage girl lost in a soulless, unsparing Kinshasa. Their encounter is an important factor in the transformation of Maki's character, strengthened by a sense of responsibility. The group evolves outside of any interaction with society; guided by its own laws, like gangsters and mafia members in noir films. For instance, the wedding, used only as a model, is celebrated between friends by imitating/caricaturing the references of religious ritual. Similarly, each gang member is baptised according to a social stereotype.

At a certain moment, something clicks in Maki's mind, prompting her to no longer tolerate her companions' mode of existence: constant idleness, spending all their time smoking and drinking. There are subtle hints on the part of the director regarding the impasse and immobility that suffocate Congolese society. Maki’s awakening/revolt emerges as a call for crucial change. Confronted with a system stronger than her, what can the young woman do? The revolving scenes of conflict, at times in direct combat with Mbingazor, who dictates the law, are like metaphors for social confrontations between a people eager for change and an illegitimate oppressive power.

When finally a glimmer of hope emerges, the monstrous actions of Mbingazor are fatal both for himself and for Maki. At the end of a physical fight between the two characters, Acha kills Mbingazor with a bullet from a pistol that Maki had seized from a client, at the same moment she is stabbed. Before shooting herself in the head, she reveals to Acha that the man she had just killed is none other than the brother she has been looking for. Acha is lost now more than ever before. She loses Maki, the only support system in her life, and she herself has put an end to the personal and ultimate hope of finding her brother, her dream of finally reaching a haven of peace. The separation from him is twofold; having realised that she had just been raped by her own brother. Herein is a dour overview of Congolese society. With what means is Acha going to face the challenges during the rest of her life? The memory of this bloody scene ending with fratricide, the money that Maki brought back, and that could/should have taken them out of the circle of poverty and violence, perhaps a child from incest and rape. Acha, like Congolese society, was not able to get out of the vicious cycle. Through a muffled cry of anger in the form of a film noir Machérie Ekwa Bahango seems to reveal that the spiral of despair continues.

Maki'la de Machérie Ekwa Bahango, un film noir par Hassouna Mansouri

Maki'la de Machérie Ekwa Bahango est un film de genre avec des composantes locales puisées dans les rues de Kinshasa, la capitale de la République Démocratique du Congo. Ces rues et les enfants qui y vivent coupés de toutes attaches familiales et sociales sont l'objet de beaucoup de fantaisie. Ils sont souvent traités comme sujets sensationnels et souvent même teintés de misérabilisme et de pathétique. La toute jeune cinéaste congolaise, elle en est à son tout premier long métrage, en fait un matériau cinématographique.

Lire l'intégralité de l'article @ http://africine.org/?menu=art&no=14427

Mis Me Binga 2017 : Women's cinema celebrated in Cameroon for the 8th time | Le cinéma féminin célébré pour la 8ème fois au Cameroun by/par Pélagie Ng'onana (Africiné)

Mis Me Binga 2017 : Women's cinema celebrated in Cameroon for the 8th time | Le cinéma féminin célébré pour la 8ème fois au Cameroun by/par Pélagie Ng'onana (Africiné)

[English] Français ci-après

Mis Me Binga 2017: “Women's cinema celebrated in Cameroon for the 8th time” by Pélagie Ng'onana, Africiné, 26/06/2017. Translation from French by Beti Ellerson. (An African Women in Cinema Blog/Africiné collaboration).

The International Women's Film Festival opens on 28 June in Yaoundé. For three days, the 24 films selected for this 8th edition of Mis Me Binga are presented to the public. "Three days of cinema" as it is called by the team who initiated the project in 2010, and led by filmmaker Narcisse Wandji (Walls, 2016) and producer Evodie Ngueyeli, is driven by the challenge of energising the local culture scene with the magic of cinema.

According to the organisation, this year's programming is a consistent representation of African women's production. This is certainly the case of Fruitless Tree by Aïcha Macky of Niger, the opening film. The 52-minute documentary addresses the hidden torment of women suffering from infertility. The film was in the official selection at the last Fespaco [2017], and has also won several prizes, including the Africa Movie Academy Awards for Best Documentary in 2016. The public will also be able to appreciate Cameroonian Chantal Youdom's Rêve corrompu (Corrupted Dream), El Dorado by her compatriot Agnès Yougang, Le crayon (The Pencil) by Adjaratou Ouédraogo of Burkina Faso and L’Absence by Hawa Ndiaye from Mali.

Cameroon leads the list of selected films, followed by Niger with three films and Burkina Faso with two. Mali, DRC, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo and Algeria each have one film. While the official selection covers mainly Central and West Africa, the team of Mis Me Binga is nevertheless pleased. However, this collection is far from a representation of "all the wonders of the cinemas of Africa" ​​as this 8th edition claims. A detail that nevertheless does not undermine the importance of the event: to move the spectators, to allow them to experience a range of emotions through their encounter with recent cinematographic works. "The importance of these films and the very reason for their existence is to give them visibility, to be able to provide elements for reflection, criticism and, why not, simply for entertainment," emphasises Evodie Ngueyeli.

From its inception Mis Me Binga ("The eyes of women" in the Ewondo language of Cameroon) took on the role of advocate to promote the woman’s perspective in the universe of the 7th art. But since the last three years, the festival has opened a window to films made by men, with themes supporting the cause of women. Although ultimately, in terms of numbers, the works by men are equal to those by women. They include The Digger by Nabe Daone, Royal Team Family by Abdel Aziz Zra, both from Cameroon; Le Jardin d'Akoua (The Garden of Akoua) by Marcelin Bossou from Togo, and the Algerian Mohamed Yargui with his film Je te promets (I promise you). This year's competition includes feature films. The two juries, for feature and for short, will discern the awards for these films, which will be announced on July 1st during the closing ceremony.

Eight years later, Mis Me Binga, which ranks as the second most important festival in Cameroon (after Écrans Noirs, which takes place in July), has seen results: about 2,000 films have been screened, 10,000 visitors and 35 women trained in screenwriting, marketing and film production. This edition proposes, throughout the three days, an initiation to film animation workshop.

[Français]

Mis Me Binga 2017 Le cinéma féminin célébré pour la 8ème fois au Cameroun. Pélagie Ng'onana. Publié le 26/06/2017

 

Le festival international de films de femmes s'ouvre le 28 juin à Yaoundé. Trois jours pas plus pour présenter au public les 24 films retenus pour cette 8ème édition du Mis Me Binga. "Trois jours de cinéma" tel que le présente la jeune équipe initiatrice du projet depuis 2010. Des jeunes, en tête desquels Narcisse Wandji, réalisateur (Walls, 2016) et Evodie Ngueyeli, productrice, nourris par le défi d'animer l'environnement culturel local avec la magie du cinéma. POUR LIRE L’INTEGRALITE : http://www.africine.org/?menu=art&no=14160