Les Couilles de l’éléphant

By Henri-Joseph Kumba Bididi

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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 adversaries’ tongues wagging. It also causes his daughter to betray him and his wife to revolt, enlisting the help of a diviner to make him impotent. The pace is upbeat, the comedy works and coarse humour gets the audience laughing out loud. « I’ll win the erection … I mean, the election! » The candidates have evocative nicknames like elephant and dinosaur, and all behave atrociously, especially when a young woman sells herself to the highest bidder, telling her mother, « Why should I marry the butler if I can have his master? ». In fact, he does not have any qualms vis-à-vis his faithful associate, stating, « Girls are like corn. Only men with teeth can eat them ».
Behind the affairs, seduction games, rebellion and jealousy lurks the image of a country run by totally corrupt politicians whose success resides in offering gifts and promising the world. And, of course this makes the film original in the land of Oumar Bongo. Koumba Bididi takes his Mocky-style caricature of a political sphere in which « they’re all rotten » to the extreme in order to denounce the behaviour of his country’s leaders. The result is a pretty depressing overview of the current situation.

2000, 98 mn, coprod CENACI – Terre Africaine – Adelaïde Productions, distr. Swift (01 56 59 17 17), mus. Wasis Diop, with Jean-Claude M’Paka (Alevina), Philippe Mory (Kouka), Malcolm Conrath (Leclerc), Annette Eyeang (Mme Alevina), Nadège Beausson-Diagne (Wissi), Serge Abessolo (Kinga), Nadine Koyo (Aurore).///Article N° : 5563


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