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So, have you seen ANY African films, films that were NOT

71.34.243.175

made by foreigners and merely set in Africa?
You need to become aware of the masterly art of Mali director, Abderrhame Sissako.
"Bamako," filmed in the very courtyard in which the filmmaker grew up, has as its conceit a mock trial indicting the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for the monstrous debt which has crippled the country, forcing it to privatize water, railways, and public education--- to disastrous results.
Before you head for the exits expecting to be lectured to, let me say the film is more a poem than a polemic. There are people who could not be actors who explain what living is like under extreme poverty--- and why they place blame where they do--- but isn't it time we heard some voices besides those of Wolfowitz and others? Surely we can stand to hear a smattering from the other side?
Alongside the drama of the trial, Sissako weaves the story of a marriage which is collapsing.
This is the third Sissako film I've seen; I'd recommend first seeing the elegiac, "Waiting for Happiness," first.
Africa truly is the forgotten continent, its music being the only art which is well known. Sissako deserves to be as famous as any musician from that rich, mysterious continent.

Follow Ups:

I'd also put in a word for Ousmane Sembene ... - Bhasi 14:46:38 03/19/09 (1)
The late Senegalese writer ostensibly turned to film-making to make his work more accessible to African audiences.
I remember being shown Mandabi (The Money Order) as part of my induction into an anthropology degree programme. My wife was shown it before going to Nigeria to teach. It certainly captures the pace of rural life and the everyday frustration of dealing with bureaucracy.
Xala (impotence, I think, in Wolof) was famous as a novel before it was filmed. It deals with the corruption of post-colonial elites.
And Moolaade, one of his last films, is about genital mutilation. This is on DVD currently but I think the other two only show up occasionally on VHS. (I assume his work's more easily found in West Africa.)*
Not a barrel of laughs, then, but his narratives and characters always seem realistic and are involving without conceding to the feel-good conventions that we're used to.

* correction: I see the first two are out on Region 1 DVD, too.

Edits: 03/19/09 03/19/09
- Thanks! Come to think of it, S. American film gets pretty short shrift, too, except for - tinear 19:27:46 03/19/09 (0)
  certain Brazilian directors who "went Hollywood."
Tsotsi.nt - jamesgarvin 14:40:33 03/19/09 (0)
nt

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