Classing Marie Ndiaye
Marie Ndiaye? A great writer, but hard to classify! Here is an attempt to situate her work, based on her latest Fémina award-winning novel, Rosie Carpe. Far from identity-based ideologies,…
Archives mensuelles : janvier, 2002
Fatma
When she was 17, Fatma was raped by a cousin. It leaves her scarred, but she doesn’t tell anyone about it. Continuing her studies, she dreams of freedom and meets…
Black Jack
Being trusted with the making of a film about the gruesome deeds of infamous Jack the Ripper was no easy task for filmmakers Albert and Allen Hugues. It’s a project…
Implementing policy with wisdom
We are currently witnessing the emergence of a new Gabonese cinema after 22 years without feature films. What caused this revival possible? The revival of the Gabonese film industry started…
Les Couilles de l’éléphant
An electoral candidate is an incorrigible girl chaser, much to the anger of his French communications advisor. His behaviour has a negative effect on the opinion polls and gets his…
on Rage
What was the budget of Rage? That’s a bit difficult because we’re still trying to find a sales agent. To shoot the film cost very little money because we didn’t…
The Odoutan phenomenon
Barbecue Pejo (Africultures 24), Djib (Afr. 32), Mama Aloko (Afr. 44, plus interview), and soon La valse des gros derrières Odoutan churns out a feature film or two a…
« The truth can’t harm a friendship »
Burkinabè Fanta Régina Nacro’s short films are a big success. Selected by the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes in 2001, Bintou, one of the films made in the southern African Mama…
Daresalam
Daresalam means the house of peace and this war film certainly talks about peace, an intense desire for peace. The rural farmers who rebel against the brutality of the exploitative…
Immatriculation temporaire
His father is called Camara Laye, which is no accident, of course. Clichéd images of Africa are soon destroyed when this young mixed-race Frenchman turns up in Guinea to find…
« I’m based in Paris, but live in Conakry »
Gahité Fonfana (Guinea/France) made three documentaries Tanun, about his Guinean grandfather, Temedy about a young woman with Aids, and Mathias on Conakry’s gang trials before presenting his first…
Guerrilla filmmaking
Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda’s acerbic fable on dictatorial power, Le Damier (DCR), was a triumph at the 1997 Fespaco. He also directed the documentaries Dix mille ans de cinéma (1991) and Thomas…
Paris : xy
Love always makes us suffer, as a billboard reminds us at the end of the film. There isn’t necessarily an answer to the xy chromosome equation! Max promises to go…
Improvising the intimate
In (Paris : xy), his second feature film after Macadam Tribu, Zeka Laplaine uses improvisation to focus on the intimacy of the couple, shooting the film on digital video.
The African exception
Are African films an exception? Yes, in many respects. Firstly because they repeatedly flop! Whilst cinema audiences grew by 11% in France in 2001 and French cinema managed to hold…
Editorial
« words of fire have taken up the torch words of cinders words of flames that tell the modern tale of Africa’s children of Icarus » Tanella Boni, Chaque jour l’espérance, L’Harmattan,…
Spectacularly Empty
Présenté au dernier Rencontres Théâtrales Internationales du Cameroun (RETIC, dont on trouvera un compte-rendu sur africultures.com), le spectacle de Faustin Linyekula, (cf entretien et note d’intention dans Africultures 42) oppose…
Le double joug
« Le double joug », titre du sixième ouvrage de Buchi Emecheta traduit en français, résume à lui seul la thématique constante des romans de cette auteure nigériane. Elle remet sur le…
Au fond de la rivière, suivi de Petite île
« La nuit, vers le plein milieu de la nuit, quand la nuit n’est pas divisée comme une boisson douce en petites gorgées, quand il n’y a pas de juste avant…
Autodafé
L’écrivain Abdourahman A. Waberi avait fait montre, selon sa propre expression, d’un enthousiasme effréné à la parution du premier numéro de la revue du Parlement International des Ecrivains, Autodafé à…
