The Cannes Film Festival is the place to be in the cinema world, yet Africa had
only four movies in the official selection this year – one in the competition, one in
Un Certain Regard, one in Cinefondation and one out of competition.
Official competition
Timbuktu
by Abderrahmane Sissako – Mauritania – 1h37
International sales: Le Pacte www.le-pacte.com
Since Bamako (2006), we have not seen anything from Mauritanian director
Abderrahmane Sissako.
Set in Oualata (Mauritania), Timbuktu recounts the story of this Malian city
occupied by Ansar Dine Jihadists in 2012. Religious fundamentalists coming from
various parts of the world forced local people there to abide by their sharia law.
How do people live under occupation? How do they resist? How absurd is the
complexity of the Jihadists attitude?
Even if a stronger storyline between the characters would have highly improved
the movie’s power, Timbuktu has a sensitive mix of poetry, hardness, love and
anger and stars stunning actors from Touareg singer Ahmed Ibrahim (Kidane) to
French actor Abel Jafri (Abdelkrim).
Un Certain Regard
Run
by Philippe Lacote – Ivory Coast – 102min
International sales: BAC Films f.schwabe@bacfilms.fr
Philippe Lacote’s first feature Run was selected in 2012 by the Cinefondation’s
Workshop. Set in Ivory Coast (Abidjan, Bassam) and Burkina Faso (Sindou), the
movie recounts Ivory Coast’s recent history through the journey of one
character.
“When I shot my documentary War Chronicles in Ivory Coast, I met many young
people sent into the streets by older politicians, says Lacote. This Ivorian youth
always interested me because it’s really hard to be young today in our country:
no jobs, no visa to go abroad… But in the meantime, there is an incredible
dynamism.’
With stunning cinematography from Israeli DOP Daniel Miller, Run stars two
Ivorian actors: Abdoul Karim Konate (main character in Burn it Up Djasssa’s
previously produced by Lacote) and Isaach de Bankole (who worked, among
others, with Jim Jarmusch and Lars Von Trier).
Despite those elements, Run misses its goal: by focusing on Run’s life more than
his surroundings, Ivoirian history is dismissed as a set more than a driving force
of the character’s evolution. Nevertheless, some brilliant special effects confirm
that Lacote is developing an interesting new take of the African mystical
aesthetic.
Cinefondation
The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometer 375
by Omar El Zohairy – Egypt – 18min
International sales: elzohairyo@yahoo.com
Since 1998, the Cinefondation promotes film students during the Cannes Film
Festival. This is how Omar El Zohairy, a Cairo High Cinema Institute, the student
of the oldest African cinema school, created in 1959, entered this competition.
After three years of training – extended to eight years due to his assistant work
for directors Yousry Nasrallah and Ahmad Abdalla – Omar El Zohairy completed
his second short film, The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at
Kilometer 375. This came after his previous effort, Zafir (2011), took a Jury Prize
at the 2012 Dubai International Film Festival.
The long title of this excellent short film indicates the plot’s black humor.
Adapted from Anton Chekhov’s 1982 novel The Death of a Government Clerk,
The Aftermath… recounts the story of an employee intimidated by his manager
after having sneezed during an official speech.
“My spotlight was on the feeling of fear, abstract from any other feelings. It is a
story of the worldwide modern life. I think modern life is the life of human being
without feelings, just afraid of everything: working all the time, just eating and
not living, like robots.’
Set in abandoned places in Cairo (1960s Russian-style factories) and in front of
the Pyramids, driven by an impressive screenplay by Sherif Naguib, this comedy
of the absurd reveals a director to follow.
Out of competition – ACID Section
The Challat of Tunis
by Kaouther Ben Hania – Tunisia – 90min
International sales: Jour2fete sales@jour2fete.com
Kaouther Ben Hania was the only African female director to have been selected
this year. Her first feature, The Challat of Tunis draws a dramatic and humoristic
portrait of misogyny in contemporary Tunisia. By telling the story of a man who,
in 2003, reportedly rode around Tunis on a scooter slashing the buttocks of
women he considered indecently dressed – an Arabic urban legend also found in
other countries – Kaouther Ben Hania interrogates her contemporary society as
well as the religious influence on male mentality.
“This is a movie about macho men,’ explains Ben Hania. “The goal is to
understand what is hidden behind this narrow-minded and violent attitude. By
making this film, I realised that there is something sad and pathetic with these
men. I almost feel compassion for them and understanding: as a filmmaker, it is
my work not to judge people.’
Kaouther Ben Hania intelligently plays with the borders between true and
untrue, fiction and documentary, men and women, liars and cheats. Thus, she
reveals the complexity of post-Arab Spring Tunisian mentalities divided between
tradition and modernity, and removed from any good and bad moralistic
dichotomy.
