Movie reviews

AFRYKAMERA

SISTERHOOD

Watchable. While the twins support each other, the documentary is more about living conditions so appalling that work abroad is the only escape. Being flashflooded so badly 3 TVs and 3 beds go to waste and you find yourself washed into your neighbours' place, for instance. All the women, regardless of age, are incredibly hard-working but, due to Islam, feeling out of control of their lives. While their dreams of working away from home sometimes sway to magical thinking, they stand on their feet strongly enough to proceed with all the arrangements. Local music, plenty of shots of the city and stories of the Fula in Sierra Leone, Kuwait and Belarus create the social backdrop. Not enough is said directly though, e.g. regarding the pregnancy. At least the female genital mutilation is called by its name, with a strong will not to pass it onto future generations. 

LEV LA TET DANN FENWAR (IN THE BILLOWING NIGHT)

Watchable. This slow-paced documentary is a melancholic look cast on Reunion from France, the former metropole. The verdant island is first shown in black and white as the shadow of a memory, with France displayed in colour right away, only historical riots are black and white. All the archive footage is presented with high contrast black so the picture is dark. The slave and overseas-department (1973) history of the Indian Ocean island is told, as well as part of the black history of then-'metropole'. The Reunionese family members feel as if history had been robbed from them. It's not stated distinctly Reunion is now a region of France - owned, incorporated, post-colonial but not independent. While it's not my preferred style of story-telling, it's the first time I've seen La Reunion in such light.

 صبي من الجنة (BOY FROM HEAVEN / CAIRO CONSPIRACY)

Recommended. The Swedish Oscar candidate opens with a fisherboy. Yet it's a political thriller. The boy becomes a pawn in a power struggle in the brutal police state of Egypt under Mubarak. The film is unhasty but constant twists of action build tension up to a blood-curdling point. Both Islam and the shenanigans are presented in a way comprehensible to outsiders. Top-notch performances all around.

SANKARA 

Recommended. The documentary charts his political history from assuming power to being assassinated. He opposed the amassment of riches by African rulers and was an economic revolutionary who made Burkina Faso - he named Upper Volta 'The Land of Honest People' - self-reliant in terms of food. He was also environmentally-aware and a feminist. In the 80s he knew of his country's desertification by 7 square km yearly. In his first government 30% were women. I wish we had a president like that. African music on top of all the swiftly served information makes the documentary fun.

Q&A WITH THE DIRECTOR OF "SANKARA"

The target audience are French youngsters since he's been being erased from history. A lot of screenings have been planned in French schools, often in immigrant communities. The documentary has to be one hour long to attract young audience. 70% of viewers are of that age. Maryam, Sankara's wife, lives in Montpellier, France, but she had enough answering questions about him. The film was made for a platform. The director is a journalist. Shooting the film took about a year. A local journalist and TV archives were the sources of information. They used about 20% of the archives they saw. Now Sahel is terrorism-ridden. Burkina Faso is a red zone for Europeans because of terrorism. Access was only to Ouagadougou, e.g. they couldn't go to the place where Sankara was born. During the post-production Blaise Compaoré was sentenced for life but, since he's living in Ivory Coast, there's little chance he'll go to prison. Sankara created common courts but because of malfeasance they didn't work. The years 1987-2014 when Blaise Compaoré was in power were economically fine but women's and environmental issues went backwards. The helicopter by which Compaoré ran away was a French military chopper sent by French President Hollande. Just a week before the Q&A another coup d'état and an attack on the French embassy took place.

NAYOLA

Walked out. This animation about civil war in Angola drags, the parallel stories of a mother looking for her husband and a daughter singing anti-police-state rap didn't get me hooked. The whole movie seems a set of random images of war.