African Cinema Review Thread

[Qrazy]

Watch African films and post your reviews here. I will compile a list to help you soon.

[B-side]

Will do. I'm excited.

[Boner M]

Good opp. for me to finally watch some Sembene.

[MadMan]

What exactly do you have in mind? I don't know if I've ever seen an "Africa film."

[B-side]

What exactly do you have in mind? I don't know if I've ever seen an "Africa film."

Any film made by an African, and filmed in Africa.

[Ezee E]

Machine GUn Preacher.
Black Hawk Down.
Blood Diamond.

Great sutff.

[B-side]

http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/zz70/SalvadorDali_2010/Miscellaneous/badouboybanner.png

African cinema saw its first major cinematic innovators and its biggest and most widespread output so far in the 60s and 70s, with the director of this film being one of its more internationally acclaimed participants. Badou Boy is a Chaplin-esque romp through urban and suburban Senegal, shot in raw fashion with a distinct documentary-like aesthetic. The titular young man's criminal activities are portrayed much like Chaplin's; a sort of comic upheaval while he's chased by a portly cop sent by the police commissioner, who is rather curious to get a hold of the man who continues to evade his workers. A man dressed in similar attire as the Tramp, cane and mannerisms and all, even has a brief role. The chase represents the director's impression of the French rule of Senegal; addressed in microcosmic fashion by the cop's insistence on hauling away a street speaker expressing discontent with the French's various promises and corruption whilst in the middle of chasing Badou Boy. The boy's rebellious nature sees him speaking to his fellow natives in Wolof as opposed to French. The film appears to contain no diegetic sound whatsoever, with the only sound supposed to be coming from characters on screen some very obviously dubbed dialogue. Clocking in at a brief 56 minutes, and containing a rather enticing ending, this is very good stuff.

http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/zz70/SalvadorDali_2010/Miscellaneous/badouboy1.png

[B-side]

I'll be posting more, whether you like it or not. I'm using this thread as an excuse to watch more African cinema.

[B-side]

Here are some of the major players and films (for directors, I'm trying to stick to those who have more than one film available on either KG or Netflix, and the films listed next to the names are available on Netflix, IW if indicated):

Ousmane Sembene - Black Girl IW, Mandabi IW, Xala IW, Moolaadé
Djibril Diop Mambéty -
Souleymane Cissé - Yeelen
Youssef Chahine
Idrissa Ouedraogo
Haile Gerima
Flora Gomes
Mahamat Saleh Haroun - A Screaming Man IW, Daratt
Abderrahmane Sissako - Bamako IW, Waiting for Happiness IW

Miscellaneous African cinema on Netflix/IW:

The Desert Ark (Chouikh, 1997)
Faraw! Mother of the Dunes (Ascofare, 1997)
Haramuya (Toure, 1995)
Tasuma (Sanou, 2004)
Sia, the Dream of the Python (Kouyaté, 2001)

Not exactly extensive, but even just this little bit took me about an hour. Keep in mind, I only have access to the IW section, and they don't show the other films available from these directors if they're only on DVD unless you specifically ask for it, so I may have missed a few from the above directors.

[Li Lili]

I watched a few African films thanks to movie festivals, however I noticed that less and less African films are present in festival nowadays....
Yeelen by Souleyman Cissé was one that impressed me (I first saw it when I was a teen!).
A few years ago, I went to a retrospective of Ousmane Sembene at another film festival, I even remember listen to him on a special talk about African cinema and especially his films. Very interesting.
I highly recommend his films, like the ones that Brightside mentioned, my favourite was Camp de Thiaroye, very historical and political (set in Senegal in 1944).
I saw also a couple of Youssef Chahine, and some North African films, but I tend now to hardly watch them.
Maybe, if I can find some notes I wrote years ago, I may post them.

[baby doll]

Any film made by an African, and filmed in Africa.Yeah, like District 9.

[B-side]

Yeah, like District 9.

Well, it does qualify, even if it kinda goes against the spirit of the thread.:P

[B-side]

http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/zz70/SalvadorDali_2010/Movie%20Caps%20Pt%202/vlcsnap-2011-11-20-06h37m08s202.png

[B-side]

http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/zz70/SalvadorDali_2010/Miscellaneous/yeelenbanner.png

While easily one of the most highly regarded African films ever made, Yeelen was nonetheless a bit of a disappointment for me. Steeped heavily in the mythology of the Bambara, the narrative follows Niankoro as he embarks on a quest through the arid landscape of Mali to kill his father, who has vowed to kill him due to conflict over their religious code. Armed with Kore wing, the scepter of the 7th initiation society of The Kore, whose symbol is the holy vulture, the bird of space and knowledge, its blinding light the inspiration for the title, "Brightness." It's hard for me to really gauge the politics of the film outside of what effectively turns out to be a good vs evil fantasy tale. There's no sense that the misguided obsession with gods and curses is a negative thing, simply that the son uses his mystical powers for good when the father uses them for evil. Cissé's film is slow-moving, dryly humorous and hardly poor, but it lacks punch in its emotional core. His form is decent, if somewhat bland. I think I'll be doing some reading to perhaps get a better sense of the thematic content of the film.

http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/zz70/SalvadorDali_2010/Miscellaneous/yeelen1.png

[Qrazy]

Yeah, Yeelen sucks. Watch Yaaba.

[Li Lili]

Well, I'm surprised about the reaction on Yeleen, perhaps I haven't got an objective view as it got a special place for personal reason (I lived in Mali for a little bit when I was a child) and it's been a long time since I last saw it.
Still, it seems to me that to say it lacks punch in its emotional core, I guess, is more personal and cultural.

[B-side]

Yeah, Yeelen sucks. Watch Yaaba.

Looks good. Grabbing now.

[B-side]

So, Yaaba was pretty great. Lighthearted, moralist observation of a small community in Burkina Faso. Profundity achieved through simple truisms.

[baby doll]

So I checked out Yeelen. Found it a little hard to follow the story at points, but that's as much a positive as a negative in my books (all the more reason to watch it again), especially as the visuals are pretty great. It's hard to think of a movie that does as much with subtle gradations of brown.