FALILA GBADAMASSI interview with/avec CORNÉLIA GLELE - The Woman King": how the actresses learned Fon, the language of the "Agodjiés" of Benin | comment les actrices ont appris le fon, la langue des "Agodjiés" du Bénin

FOCUS

African women's reflections on The Woman King

Falila Gbadamassi, introduction and interview with Cornélia Glele

The Woman King": how the actresses learned Fon, the language of the "Agodjiés" of Benin 
Cornélia Glele is one of the two background consultants who took part in the American production.

"The Woman King" : comment les actrices ont appris le fon, la langue des "Agodjiés" du Bénin
Cornélia Glele est l'une des deux consultantes en fon qui a participé à la production américaine.

Translation from French by Beti Ellerson

Source (version originale en Français): https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/afrique/culture-africaine/the-woman-king-comment-les-actrices-ont-appris-le-fon-la-langue-des-agodjies-du-benin_5395819.html

Beninese filmmaker Cornélia Glele launched the International Women's Film Festival of Cotonou (FIFF) in 2019, whose aim is to promote film productions made by African women. Recently, she worked on the film The Woman King by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Her mission was to assist the cast—Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch and Sheila Atim—to master Fon, one of the main languages of Benin and which is spoken by the Amazons, who are originally from the south of the country. The Woman King, which evokes the warrior exploits of the Amazons, is pure Hollywood entertainment, while at the same time a symbolically just cultural product, even if, like all fiction, The Woman King takes some liberties with history.*

Franceinfo Afrique: You are listed in the credits of the film The Woman King as a Fon-language consultant. What did your job consist of? 

Cornélia Glele: Along with Beninese actress Carole Lokossou, our role was to teach Fon to the various actresses and actors of the film, a dozen in all. Since it was shot during the pandemic, we did Zoom meetings all the time, about one hour a day for each actor. We responded to each one with their dialogue in Fon. We also worked with the music team, for example, translating into Fon and verifying that the sound of the recordings in the Fon language was good.

Is it easy to learn Fon? 

Fon is not an easy language to acquire but we had good students. It was a very enjoyable experience teaching it. We experienced a lot during this project.

In Benin, The Woman King has been criticized for cultural appropriation. The question is who tells Africans’ stories and to what extent they are able to do so themselves, especially cinematic stories. Your reflections? 

I don't know if it is a story that belongs only to Africa or specifically to Benin. I believe that it is also their history, that it is the history of humanity. The slave trade took place along the entire coast of the continent: people were deported from Benin and were taken to America. Is it any less the history of an African American than of a Beninese who remained in Benin? I don't think so. It is all of our history and each decides to tell it as she or he feels. In Benin, we are not yet able to tell this story because we certainly do not have the means to do so. However, at the present, there is a statue in Benin that represents an Amazon, which demonstrates that the Beninese State had the means to erect this monument. Perhaps in a few years it may be able to invest in a large production such as The Woman King.

You are the director of a festival dedicated to women in cinema. What inspired you about this cast, this majority-woman team as a contribution to the history of extraordinary women?

The film was proposed by a woman (Maria Bello), produced by a woman (Viola Davis), directed by a woman (Gina prince-Bythewood), edited by a woman. I was very proud to be part of all of this because this film demonstrates that women can bring to reality a production that is presently lauded by the critics. This means that we are capable of doing everything and that it simply takes a bit of willpower. The Woman King is a wonderful experience and I hope it will inspire many women in Benin and in Africa.

What will you take away from this experience?

I learned a lot. I did not know, for example, certain events in the history of the Amazons. Presently, the film’s significance makes this experience unique. In the future, when I am asked which country I come from, this film will make it possible to situate Benin, which means that I don’t have to explain that it is a neighbor of Nigeria. However, what stands out for me above all is the discipline that permeated the space during our work sessions. All the actors practiced constantly to get the right pronunciation. They are real professionals! We would love to work with this kind of people all the time. We don't always have the opportunity on the African continent. 

Of your famous students, who was the best in Fon? 

Trick question (laughter)! I would like to invite them to the FIFF in Cotonou one day and I hope they will accept my invitation. 

*A point drawn from historian Sylvia Serbin, author of Reines d'Afrique et héroïnes de la diaspora noire in an interview by Cédric Cousseau. 
https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture/cinema/the-woman-king-les-amazones-du-dahomey-se-sont-elles-opposees-a-la-traite-des-esclaves-comme-le-montre-le-film_5391673.html 

Falila Gbadamassi: The Woman King, an African perspective (“The Woman King": the epic of the Amazons of Benin revisited by Hollywood) francetvinfo.fr

FOCUS

African women's reflections on The Woman King

Falila Gbadamassi:

The Woman King, an African perspective

"The Woman King": the epic of the Amazons of Benin revisited by Hollywood

"The Woman King" : l'épopée des Amazones du Bénin revisitée par Hollywood 

Source: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/afrique/societe-africaine/the-woman-king-l-epopee-des-amazones-du-benin-revisitee-par-hollywood_5283124.html.

Translation from French by Beti Ellerson

Falila Gbadamassi gave me her impressions after the press screening:  "This is your magnum opus indeed Viola Davis. From an Oyo and Dahomey descendant, bravo!" 14 Oct, 2022

The blockbuster about this exceptional all-woman regiment arrives in American and French cinemas in September. In Benin, their country of origin, the first images of the film were not unanimously accepted.

The Woman King fiction feature about the famous Beninese Amazons, directed by the American Gina Prince-Bythewood and embodied by her Oscar-winning compatriot Viola Davis, will be released in theaters on September 16 and 28, respectively in the United States and France. Set in 1823 in Dahomey, present-day Benin, in West Africa.

The young Nawi, played by actress Thuso Mbedu, is an orphan raised by a greedy uncle. She later decides to join the regiment of the Agodjiés ("Agoodjiés") or "Minons”, helmed by General Nanisca (Viola Davis). Trained to protect King Guezo (John Boyega) and defend the kingdom, especially against the Portuguese slave traders, the soldiers endure harsh training at the same time are marginalized by society.

Screened as a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), in Canada, The Woman King has already been praised by critics: on Rotten Tomatoes it was rated over 90%. Which is not very reassuring to some Beninese, who on discovering the first images of the film, have expressed reservations. The trailer for The Woman King, released in early July, immediately fueled controversy in the native country of the famous fighters.

“The trailer evoked mixed reactions, Beninese journalist Maurice Thantan said to franceinfo Afrique: “Some expressed pride in the fact that a distinctively Beninese story, about the Agodjiés, was brought to the screen”. As affirmed by the Beninese government on its official website: "an all-woman military regiment which existed until the end of the 19th century in the kingdom of Danxomè (or Dahomey)”. This pathbreaking army is the oeuvre of an equally exceptional woman, Tassi Hangbé, who reigned from 1708 to 1711, posing as her twin brother, King Akaba, killed at war. "Others denounce 'cultural appropriation', Maurice Thantan continues, “fearing that the story will be distorted in the cinematic narrative.” A young Beninese filmmaker, Sèdo Tossou, regrets that “there were no Beninese actors in the cast". On social media [Facebook], he implores "authenticity”, denouncing a film "which uses our history but includes no Beninese in the production… and yet African-Americans themselves complain about cultural appropriation". Sèdo Tossou is also annoyed by the accent of the actors, saying he is "tired of seeing films where the actors imitate a grotesque Nigerian accent (regardless of) the African country where the action is (supposed to) take place". However, this debate which will elude the cinephiles who will see the version of the film dubbed in French, since these issues in the original version, as in the film Black Panther (2018) by Ryan Coogler, are not evident.

The Beninese writer Florent Couao-Zotti reacted in a post on Facebook by describing as "heresy" a controversy surrounding the trailer which, generally, "shows everything (and) at the same time almost nothing". As for the question of "cultural appropriation", the author notes that Americans have always drawn on the cultures of the world "to nourish their inspirations". Especially since, according to the technical adviser for culture at the Beninese Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, The Woman King “represents a film that is the most rooted in the era and history of Africa ever produced by Hollywood, while “black Africa (has not) created much in (this) industry". For its actors and its director, all black women, The Woman King has a symbolic dimension. "It's a film lead by dark-skinned black women," insisted Viola Davis, the co-producer of the film, on the set of Good Morning America [Youtube] where she was invited on September 13, 2022. "When did you see this? Never!", says Viola Davis. Women who have often been told that they are "invisible". "This is my gift to the 6-year-old Viola who was always called black and ugly" in order to tell her "that she matters”.

Throughout the promotion of the film across the Atlantic, The Woman King team pours out, evoking an almost mystical experience with this feature film, which was shot in South Africa. During a touching roundtable discussion composed 100% of women, organized by the American magazine Essence [Twitter], the artists confided that they found strength in the idea of telling "the story of (their) ancestors". This is why Prince-Bythewood wanted to bring together "the diaspora": in addition to the South African Thuso Mbedu and the American Viola Davis, we find on the poster of the feature film Lashana Lynch, who is British (the new 007 in the James Bond franchise) and Ugandan-British Sheila Atim. In the most difficult moments, Lashana Lynch explains that she was motivated by the fact that the Agodjiés could be "proud" of her interpretation.

Moreover, The Woman King, a portrait of warriors, is also a physical feat for the actresses whom the director asked to perform their own stunts and combat scenes. Viola Davis says, in a great burst of laughter, that she did not miss the opportunity to remind Gina Prince-Bythewood that she was 56 years old and that all this exertion could cause her "a heart attack" and kill her, unlike her thirty-something colleagues. "My body has been through hell", just like her colleagues, Viola Davis reiterated in a video clip for the film.

(The best action movie is story and character driven. For #TheWomanKing, which meant that our actors did their own fights and stunts. They gave EVERYTHING to fully embody these warriors)

All of these efforts to bring The Woman King to life will need to be validated by the public and therefore to be a success at the box office. According to Viola Davis, this is essential to demonstrate to Hollywood that a film whose faces on the billboard are black women, is profitable. "This film has to make money, otherwise this conversation (about diversity in cinema) is null and void", Viola Davis insisted in Toronto.

The Woman King cost $50 million (over a million euros), The Hollywood Reporter notes. And the production called on the Beninese, as was the scouting, which took place in Benin, Maurice Thantan confirms. Moreover, the American actress and producer Maria Bello, who pitched the idea for this film to Viola Davis in 2015, discovered the Agodjiés when traveling to the country.

"We are having heated debates whereas all of this is very commercial", Maurice Thantan points out. What is certain is that this controversy reflects the growing interest of Beninese themselves for their illustrious compatriots. “Most (among us), theoretically, those who have finished primary school, have heard of the Amazons at least once, notes the journalist. However, on the continent, we were not aware of their grandeur and their singularity. The fact that Hollywood is interested in the subject gives the Beninese even more reason to appropriate this history which is already part of our identity".

An approach which also comes from "a collective political commitment”: “The government is making large investments in the field of culture and tourism,” Maurice Thantan reiterates. Inaugurated on July 31, on the eve of the celebration of Benin's independence, a giant 30-meter Amazon was put on display in Cotonou, the economic capital. The monument attracts "a huge crowd", according to the Beninese journalist. A museum will soon be dedicated to the Agodjiés.

Since the success of Black Panther and its Dora Milaje, which are inspired by the Amazons, Hollywood seems to have become fascinated by Beninese warriors. Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong'o, who played a Dora Milaje in Ryan Coogler's film and was tipped for the role of Nawi in The Woman King, directed a documentary on female soldiers, Warrior Women, broadcast in March 2022 in the United States.

Moreover, the planned sequel to Black Panther should further highlight this all-woman regiment that protects the throne of the imaginary African kingdom of Wakanda. For the most impatient, The Woman King promises action and emotion. Will it be enough to convince the most skeptical Beninese? The response will come in a few months when the film arrives in the rare movie theaters of the country. And perhaps, it will be dubbed in Fon, the language of the Amazons, and one of the most widely spoken in Benin.

The Woman King by Gina Prince-Bythewood with Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and John Boyega

French release: September 28 

"Une Histoire d'amour et de désir" | "A Tale of Love and Desire ". Interview with/avec Leyla Bouzid by/par Falila Gbadamassi

Update: FESPACO 2021

Feature film in competition

Étalon de bronze

Leyla Bouzid

Une histoire d'amour et de désir

A Tale of Love and Desire  

Tunisia - 2021 - 102min

Synopsis
Ahmed, 18 ans, français d’origine algérienne, a grandi en banlieue parisienne. Sur les bancs de la fac, il rencontre Farah, une jeune tunisienne pleine d’énergie fraîchement débarquée à Paris. Tout en découvrant un corpus de littérature arabe sensuelle et érotique dont il ne soupçonnait pas l’existence, Ahmed tombe très amoureux d'elle et bien que littéralement submergé par le désir, il va tenter d’y résister.

Ahmed, 18, French of Algerian origin, grew up in the suburbs of Paris. At the university, he meets Farah, a young Tunisian girl, full of energy, who has just arrived in Paris. While discovering a collection of sensual and erotic Arab literature he never imagined existed, Ahmed falls head over heels in love with Farah, and although literally overwhelmed with desire, he will try to resist it. 

"Une Histoire d'amour et de désir"

"A Tale of Love and Desire "

Interview with/avec Leyla Bouzid by/par Falila Gbadamassi

 

"A Tale of Love and Desire" or when Leyla Bouzid takes an interest "in the romantic initiation of a shy young man". Interview by Falila Gbadamassi, Africine.org, published 24/08/2021.

Translated from French by Beti Ellerson, an African Women in Cinema Blog collaboration with Africine.org.

En français : http://africine.org/entretien/une-histoire-damour-et-de-desir-ou-quand-leyla-bouzid-sinteresse-a-leducation-sentimentale-dun-jeune-garcon-timide/15171

Leyla Bouzid, Franco-Tunisian filmmaker
Falila Gbadamassi is an editor at Africiné Magazine

A Tale of Love and Desire closed the International Critics' Week at the last edition of the Cannes Film Festival. With tenderness and care, the second feature fiction film by the Franco-Tunisian director recounts the budding love and amorous tribulations of a young student couple of North African origin. The film was in competition at the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival held from 24 to 29 August 2021.

On the benches of the university, Ahmed (Sami Outalbai), 18, meets Farah (Zbeida Belhaj). He is French of Algerian origin. She comes from her native Tunisia to continue her studies in Paris. The curriculum they have chosen leads them to the discovery of a sensual and erotic Arabic literature. Their intellectual endeavor soon intertwines with a quest of love. And the less reticent member of this new couple is not the one we think.

Falila Gbadamassi: What inspired you to want to make this film?

Leyla Bouzid: A lot of things came together but the initial idea was to focus on the romantic initiation of a shy young man. I wanted to describe these emotions and construct a story of emancipation around a young man particularly from North African culture. Little by little, things evolve that nourished the film.

This film may seem to have as its purpose to clarify to the spectator, that the idea that you have today of Arab culture concerning sex and love was constructed by completely erroneous images…

In any case, it is an image which is reductive and oversimplified. Thus, the idea is to propose a level of complexity, nuance and subtlety where we are often too restrictive. I do not think the film can completely change this image, but at least it is making a point by saying that there are other representations beyond what is being shown at the present.

Your feature film is very instructive. In it we find interesting literary references precisely on love and desire treated by Arab authors. What was your research process? Where did you find your sources?

I tried to read and find information to nourish the characters who discover this literature and, indeed, there is an educational dimension because the protagonists themselves learn these texts. There is obviously a lot more information than what is presented in the film.

Your attention is focused more on the character of Ahmed, and Farah, who he falls in love with seems more liberated than him when it comes to matters of love. Why this choice?

It seemed to me that a young Frenchman of North African origin can experience difficulties with love, may be shy and reserved; and that a young Tunisian who arrives from Tunisia, though not necessarily liberated, may not, at any rate, have problems at this level. However, Ahmed only represents himself. I wanted to talk about a shy young man. These people exist but are rarely represented. We are always stuck in clichés. We only see representations of men of North African origin with a very virile, visible masculinity on display.

You explain why he is shy and to what extent social pressure can play a role. Ahmed lives in the outskirts of Paris where his peers have very set ideas about matters of love or relationships between men and women. They have constructed codes of which they themselves do not know the origins. Ahmed talks with a big brother of the neighborhood who he respects and who explains to him, among other things, that their Arab-ness has been stolen from them, the content of which remains unclear, even for him, who makes this claim. Is there an explanation for this type of situation that you relate in your film?

They are in search of an identity and of a reclamation. They themselves don't know. This is what the film is about. I do not know what this means either, but I am trying to put a level of complexity into all of this. The film has an interest in this Arab identity but it is also a film about a romance. And Ahmed is not shy because of the neighborhood, where there can be a form of sexual misery, or at any rate, where there are difficulties living a love relationship. Ahmed is shy because he is someone who has an inner world, who likes to read and who probably has a very pure vision of love. That is his temperament.

How did you choose Sami Outalbai, who interprets Ahmed, and Zbeida Belhaj who embodies Farah?

Sami, who interprets Ahmed, has been acting since he was very young, though in secondary roles. I saw him in the ARTE drama mini-series Fiertés by Philippe Faucon, where he played a small role, but he seemed really interesting to me. When I saw him, I thought to myself that he was within the age range, and he had the profile and physique to be Ahmed. I met him and he immediately signed on to the project. I then cast him and he was incredible: he has a very beautiful voice when he reads the texts. I met Zbeida in Tunisia. I discovered her during my previous film [As I Open My Eyes, her first feature film released in 2015]. She was very young then: she was 14, she was the right age. I wanted to make sure that she was someone who lives in Tunisia.

In a way, you are a woman who puts herself in the shoes of a young man with the character of Ahmed. How would you explain this?

I don't know if I put myself in his shoes but in any case I try to get a sense of what he might be experiencing, to follow him and to film him. I looked at him and tried to be with him. But he eludes me a bit too. He has a part of the mystery that I left up to him to express.

You are Franco-Tunisian. Presently, African cinema is also very much that of its diaspora. Do you think that your gaze is different from that of a filmmaker in Tunisia or is there, in fact, no real difference since, no matter where you are, the perspective you have of your country or cultural space does not actually change?

I grew up in Tunisia and came to France at the age of 18. For this film, I think that my journey and my trajectory have allowed me to take a step back from the discourse about the Maghreb community in France and what it is considered to be, which often does not consider its diversity. So I am putting diversity within diversity. Our trajectory necessarily nourishes our perspective. Hence, my journey is nourished by my lived experience and the fact that I am from another country when I arrive in France. It's a great opportunity to have a double culture and to be able to have that kind of distance. Afterwards, depending on the projects and films, there are stories that can be told from anywhere. You don't have to be from one place or another. For this film, the issue was about the questioning of identities, an interrogation on the representation of this identity. I am always mindful of authenticity, and it is also nourished by what I have seen.

Falila Gbadamassi, special correspondent

Black Camera: African Women on the Film Festival Landscape: Organizing, Showcasing, Promoting, Networking by Beti Ellerson with Falila Gbadamassi (Fall 2019)

African Women on the Film Festival Landscape: Organizing, Showcasing, Promoting, Networking

by Beti Ellerson with Falila Gbadamassi

Black Camera: An International Film Journal

Vol. 11, No. 1 (Fall 2019), pp. 424-456

An important function of the film festival is its capacity to showcase on a local, continental, and international level the works of African women, and to serve as a networking space to professionalize their experiences as stakeholders on the global film festival landscape. As these entities proliferate on the continent and internationally, African women are leading the way, often at the helm of these institutions. The objective of many local film festivals is to facilitate an interconnected triadic relationship between the film, filmmaker, and audience—especially with the organization of press conferences and panel discussions. Hence cultivating a critical audience via ciné-clubs and after-screening debates has been a long-standing practice of these local film initiatives. Drawing from this background and historical context, the article and associated timeline outline women's film festival practices in Africa as a vehicle for promoting leadership and showcasing women as role models; the cultural leadership functions that African women have taken on at the helm of film festivals on the continent and the diaspora; the diverse film festivals in Africa and their initiatives toward the empowerment and advancement of women in cinema; the showcasing of African women at African film festivals around the world; and the flagship international film festivals and their interest in including African women in the global cinematic conversation. As there is an abundance of African and women-related film events, because of their obvious relevance they are described in the timeline that follows the discussion, while a few select festivals receive more detailed focus because of their historical importance, longevity, and significance to this study on African women and film festival practices.

Key words: African film festival network, Women’s film festival circuit, film festival studies

Subheadings:

-African women's film festival practices 

-Timeline of African women on the film festival landscape

-Mati Diop at Cannes 2019: Interview and critique of Atlantique by Falila Gbadamassi

-Mati Diop’s "Atlantique" – In the foam of the "Atlantic" critique by Falila Gbadamassi

Published by: Indiana University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/blackcamera.11.1.24

BLACK CAMERA: AFRICAN WOMEN IN CINEMA DOSSIER BY BETI ELLERSON:

African Women on the Film Festival Landscape: Organizing, Showcasing, Promoting, Networking with Falila Gbadamassi (Fall 2019) 

Safi Faye's Mossane: A Song to Women, to Beauty, to Africa (Spring 2019)

African Women of the Screen as Cultural Producers: An Overview by Country (Fall 2018)

On-screen Narratives, Off-screen Lives: African Women Inscribing the Self (Spring 2018)

Traveling Gazes: Glocal Imaginaries in the Transcontinental, Transnational, Exilic, Migration, and Diasporic Cinematic Experiences of African Women (Spring 2017)

African Women and the Documentary: Storytelling, Visualizing History, from the Personal to the Political (Fall 2016)

Teaching African Women in Cinema, Part Two (Spring 2016)

Teaching African Women in Cinema, Part One (Fall 2015)

Cannes 2019: Maïmouna N'Diaye, member of the jury | membre du jury: interview/entretien by/par Falila Gbadamassi (AfriqueFrance Télévisions)

Cannes 2019: Maïmouna N'Diaye

member of the jury | membre du jury interview/entretien by/par Falila Gbadamassi (AfriqueFrance Télévisions)

Translated excerpts from interview in French by Falila Gbadamassi. AfriqueFrance Télévisions. 13 05 2019

EN FRANÇAIS: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture/cinema/festival-de-cannes/maimouna-ndiaye-il-faut-que-le-cinema-africain-arrive-a-faire

Choice of pursuing a career in Africa rather than Europe:

I admit that I was very lucky. I grew up in Africa, studied in Europe and then came back to the continent. It is indeed a choice, because at one point in my career in Europe, I felt that I had more to gain by working in Africa and I wanted to do things from the continent. It seemed obvious to me.

When I finished my studies, I worked in TV series and feature films in France. And then, there was an off-peak and rather than waiting for roles that did not come, I thought it would be better to collaborate with directors on the continent. And to avoid having to wait between films and because I like to be active, I embarked on the production of documentaries. I have roles in the theatre, in TV series and in the cinema. I am always on the move, because I need it. In addition, if the film industry is to develop, African filmmakers must be allowed to work on location with us.

As ambassador of Fespaco in 2019: Its evolution at the 50th anniversary

There are many things that have changed and others not so much. This year, I had the great honour of being the image of the fiftieth anniversary of Fespaco (Pan-African Festival of Film and Television). This was a privilege for several reasons: First, it is a pan-African festival, my diverse background and my cultural identities echo this [born in Paris of a Senegalese father and a Nigerien mother, grew up in Guinea, lived in France, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal before settling in Burkina Faso]. So I feel that I am at home in all of these places, and am very comfortable. I am international, pan-African and of African descent. I do not see my colour, but I know my cultures. Then, L’Œil du cyclone | The Eye of the Hurricane (2015) and the 12 awards that I received worldwide, and the film itself which received 80, certainly played an important part.

I think that the place of women in our African cinemas has evolved a great deal. They are more and more present in films, even if their roles remain stereotypes, whereas there are other characters to embody. On the technical side, the situation has also changed. It started with women directors, women cinematographers, sound and lighting engineers… They have pushed to be recognised and have asserted themselves in this environment of men. The advent of digital technology has helped to facilitate access to women. They are not only makeup artists, scriptwriters or editors. At this level, the situation has really evolved and it is a pleasure.

…at the level of productions, [African] filmmakers sometimes lack imagination or they do not want to take the time to unleash their imagination. I think that cinema has to make you dream, reflect and, why not, change mentalities or give another point of view. However, I find that we are still too close to what people live on a daily basis. I am a documentary filmmaker, so I will not criticize such an approach. Simply, I think that fiction must go beyond this.

Africans do not always want to see their reality in film, they want to be projected into another reality. People, young people especially, go to see foreign films because, in fact, they allow them to dream, they are taken elsewhere. Our cinema needs to get there. Our films must be seen in Africa and beyond, like all other productions. We have to make films, period! Even if we talk about African cinema, which is often classified as such, ultimately, a good film is a good film. We have to get there and we will succeed. The youth is on the way!

The regional disparity between Maghreb cinema/English-speaking countries and francophone regions in West and Central Africa

We need to understand in the francophone region that cinema is a real industry and that we must put in place genuine cultural policies so that cinema is funded at the level that it merits. Our policies must recognise that cinema pays. It is an idea that does not seem to get through.

Shooting a film involves setting up teams of women and men who, through their work, can support their families. I think that investing in cinema prevents us from having to sacrifice the education of young girls for the benefit of boys. To fund girls' education is to see what they are capable of! As long as cinema is only considered entertainment, we will not get there.

Mati Diop: "It was very important for me to dedicate a film to this ghost generation" | "C'était très important pour moi de dédier un film à cette génération fantôme". Interview/Entretien by/par Falila Gbadamassi (Africine, Cannes 2019)

Mati Diop: "It was very important for me to dedicate a film to this ghost generation" | "C'était très important pour moi de dédier un film à cette génération fantôme". Interview/Entretien by/par Falila Gbadamassi

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=14683

05/19/2019. Images : Festival de Cannes 

Also read | À lire aussi:

Cannes 2019: Mati Diop receives/reçoit le Grand Prix

Mati Diop : Atlantique (Cannes 2019)

Mati Diop’s "Atlantique"  analysis/analyse by/par Falila Gbadamassi

French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop's Atlantique, in competition at the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival. The fiction offers an original point of view of the Senegalese youth who embark on the fatal crossing to reach the European coasts. 

Falila Gbadamassi: You recognised the extent of this illegal emigration by sea in 2008 during a stay in Senegal. For you, in fact, evoking this subject could be done only through the angle of "mythology" as you call it?

Mati Diop: Absolutely! It is a good start because I make a film when I feel that I have a personal and unique contribution to offer to the debate. If it is to make another film about illegal immigration, it's not worth it. Indeed, cinema, gives me extraordinary, magical and powerful tools to tell things differently. I try to benefit from the infinite power that cinema offers. It is really fortunate to have such an extraordinary medium; it's really a magical power!

When you thought about the fantastical element of your film, did the idea of ​​the jinn immediately come to you or did you first explore other ideas?

First, the fact that the lost-at-sea are unburied gave me the idea to bring them back. "Unburied" is associated with "wandering": this belief is universal. Then, the question of what form to give to these ghosts was posed: would they return in flesh and bones out of the ocean, in the form of holograms? There were a variety of ways to bring them back. But I wanted the form of these ghosts to coincide with the culture of Senegal, among others, Muslim. I was very seduced by the djinn imaginary (spirits, in the Muslim culture) and "faru rab" (husbands of the night) who are djinn lovers. Visually, I imagined the djinn lover to enter through the woman’s navel, to possess her and leave. These stories fascinate me. I discovered them gradually during my trips to Dakar. I was inspired by this fantasy especially as it corresponded to the idea that these ghosts are born, in a way, in the imagination of these women (that the contenders initially leave behind them). For me, ghosts are first born in us, it is through our memory that we make them return. It is the imagination that creates ghosts. After, their white eyes, the fever is a physical manifestation of their presence (especially in the film). In Muslim and African culture too, I believe, there are specific hours when spirits come out. I was told these stories when I was a child. As a filmmaker, knowing that at a precise moment, something invisible is supposed to happen, it drives me crazy!

Your film appears as an ode to this exuberant African youth. Was it really your intention to pay tribute to this Senegalese youth?

I especially wanted to pay homage to this youth vanished at sea. This is my primary intention because it was very important for me to dedicate a film to this lost generation, ghost, while giving it life through the living. It is also a way of making sense out of their actions. They have not reached Spain (destination targeted by young Senegalese who go to sea), their dream... But maybe they are for many of those in the riots of 2012 (Note by Africine: especially driven by young Senegalese who opposed a new term of the incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade). Having disappeared at sea, these young people may have allowed the rebirth of a new youth. Anyway, I like to think that these young people who rebelled in 2012 during the “Dakarois Spring” carry in them these missing ones, and that the missing also took something of them when leaving.

Besides, I did not want to make this youth a monolith. I wanted to take into account its diversity and complexity and to show through the characters of the film, the myriad Senegalese, Muslim, American, European influences. Influences related to new technologies, ancestral beliefs. Young people are at the crossroads of so many realities. This breeding ground is incredibly fertile.

This metaphysical dimension that you explore in the cinema, do you believe in it personally?

I believe in fiction!

The filming took place in the dust of Dakar, the Senegalese capital. The atmosphere of the city is too, rendered very well. How did you shoot in this jam-packed city?

The best we could (laughs)! The shooting of Mille soleils (Thousand Suns, 2013, a documentary made in Dakar) went very well. It was nevertheless very physically demanding. On the scale of a feature film, I was very concerned about the level of difficulty. The Senegalese, themselves, thought it was crazy to shoot in Thiaroye (suburb of Dakar). However, we did not have as many obstacles as one would have imagined. I must say that filming there gives me more energy than what one would have imagined otherwise. 

As the first African woman filmmaker to be in the running for the Palme d'Or, you are a pioneer...

Pioneer...

Yes, in spite of yourself. And you belong to a filmmaking family. There is your renowned uncle, Djibril Diop Mambéty whose film Touki Bouki is also at the heart of your documentary Thousand Suns. There is also your father, Wasis Diop, a musician who has authored famous soundtracks, including those of his brother. All this is part of a continuity that seems consistent.

Consistent, I don’t know. But it is a personal continuation that I chose to make. I am fortunate to have inherited an extremely strong and inspiring history, while at the same time feeling very free to write my own story. It is the most beautiful legacy: to continue while reinventing and remaining oneself. The best way to pay homage to the work of my uncle and my father is to continue the path in my own way, with the tools of my generation.

And to represent Senegal: the link to your African origins is quite strong. You have even said that it was the impetus of your desire to make films.

It does not mean that all my films will take place in Senegal. However, my relationship to cinema is intertwined with my Africanity.

***

Mati Diop : "C'était très important pour moi de dédier un film à cette génération fantôme". Entretien par Falila Gbadamassi

La cinéaste franco-sénégalaise Mati Diop signe Atlantique, film en compétition pour la 72e édition du Festival de Cannes. La fiction offre un point de vue original sur la funeste traversée des jeunes Sénégalais pour rejoindre les côtes européennes. Lire l'intégralité de l'article @ http://www.africine.org/?menu=art&no=14683.

"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

Mati Diop’s "Atlantique" – In the foam of the "Atlantic” | Dans l'écume de l "Atlantique" analysis/analyse by/par Falila Gbadamassi (Africine)

Mati Diop’s "Atlantique" – In the foam of the "Atlantic" | Dans l'écume de l' "Atlantique" 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=14680. 05/17/2019

Also read | À lire aussi:

Cannes 2019: Mati Diop receives/reçoit le Grand Prix

Mati Diop : Atlantique (Cannes 2019)

Mati Diop: Interview/Entretien by/par Falila Gbadamassi

French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop contemplates the emigration of young Africans—through the angle of fantasy. Atlantique gives homage to the memory of a generation lost in the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantique is in competition for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. A first for an afrodescendant woman.

In the suburbs of Dakar, the Senegalese capital, Ada (Mame Bineta Sané) loves Sulaiman (Ibrahima Traore). And though Souleiman loves Ada, she will soon marry another. Nonetheless, they continue their clandestine rendezvous in a nightclub adjoining the sea, but on this night, Suleiman does not show up. He has taken to the sea with his friends, at the end of a devastating workday. Looming smugly on the site is the building that the young workers are erecting—though they still have not received their pay. As Suleiman points out, despite their hard work, they have become indebted men, who return late at night to evade their numerous creditors.

For her first feature film, Mati Diop is an advocate of the unemployed youth, a youth for which emigration to Europe by sea becomes the only option. Filmed from all angles, this dangerous Atlantic Ocean is a full-fledged character of the film: the director posed her camera, in the wafts of dust of Dakar, a city teeming with life and on which hovers the shadow of death, caused by a tumultuous sea. The filmmaker also reflects on the daily life of the young women and men: the young women seeking to build a future through marriage, or content to wait for the young men, who, in spite of themselves, choose the sea, in the hopes of opening other horizons, even if it means to die doing so.

Atlantique is inhabited by the strength of the originality of its scenario. Mati Diop treats the issue of clandestine immigration from a mystical viewpoint, summoning the jinn (the spirits of the Muslim imaginary) to address one of the reasons for this perilous risk-taking: the lack of perspective for many young Senegalese even when they have a job. Tangentially, the film denounces those who exploit them, rather than simply paying them the equivalent of the fruits of their labor.

In the meantime, Ada is waiting for Suleiman, who seems to have returned to the capital. However, she is not the only one to pursue him. The police, embodied in particular by the dashing inspector Issa (Amadou Mbow), is also on his tracks because of a mysterious fire that broke out in Ada’s bridal chamber.

In addition to the police investigation interrogation, Mati Diop asks her own questions. What happens to the souls of all those who perished in this great blue vastness that they sometimes saw from their room? What are their final hopes? By presenting their thoughts and their relationships with the living, the filmmaker delivers her own response, plunging the viewer into a magical haze: thanks, among other things, to the repetition of images that return to the sea. Her elder and compatriot, the poet Birago Diop, did he not already say that the dead were not dead? ... In Atlantique, they are in the foam of the sea.

Dans l'écume de l' "Atlantique"

Un film de Mati Diop analyse par Falila Gbadamassi

publié le 17/05/2019. Africine.org

La cinéaste franco-sénégalaise Mati Diop traite de l'émigration des jeunes Africains sous l'angle du fantastique. Atlantique salue la mémoire d'une génération perdue dans les vagues de l'océan Atlantique. Le film vaut à sa réalisatrice de devenir une pionnière du cinéma africain : elle est la première femme du continent à être en compétition pour la Palme d'Or. Lire l'intégralité de l'article @ http://www.africine.org/?menu=art&no=14680