Français
The new film by Ivorian director Philippe Lacôte will be released in theatres in Ivory Coast on 4 December 2020. A film that plunges the viewer into the prison world and that remains in line with the aesthetic ambitions of its director.
After being selected at the New York Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and the Monstra of Venice, Philippe Lacôte‘s second feature film will be released in Ivory Coast on 4 December 2020. The title of the film might make one think of Shakespeare’s play but it is not. The Night of the Kings is a prison film in which the director takes us to MACA, the most populated prison in West Africa, which is located in Ivory Coast. In this prison, a new inmate, Roman, played by Bakary Kone, is chosen as the one who will henceforth tell stories. For the principle in this prison run by the inmates themselves and in which Blackbeard, played by Steve Tientcheu, reigns, every night an inmate has to tell a story. Roman doesn’t know what to tell, but he is obsessed with Zama’s story.
With this film, which is in the running for an Oscars nomination in 2021, Philippe Lacôte plunges us into the world of prisons without trying to take a stand or point fingers, but simply presenting a world, certainly unknown to the general public, a world with its codes with its laws with its own humanity. A world that the director knows well because his mother was detained for polical reasons for several years and he has carried out several film activities in prisons. The film is also a metaphor of Ivorian society with its power struggles. According to the director: “It was about showing, behind closed doors, all the intrigues that could be set up to gain access to power“. For in this film there is a lot of talk about power and a certain part of the history of Ivory Coast is thus revisited as it was already in RUN, Philippe Lacôte‘s first feature film.
The Wassakara Productions Company that produces the film has opted in collaboration with the director for a pan-African cast, including actors from Ivory Coast, Bakary Kone, who plays the role of Roman, Abdoul Karim Konaté who played the lead in the film Run, Leaticia Ky who plays the role of a Queen in one of Roman’s memories. Actors from Burkina Faso: Issaka Sawadogo, Rasmane Ouédraogo; from Cameroon: Steve Tientcheu who plays Blackbeard, from France with Denis Lavant.
In this film, which borrows from the thriller, Philippe Lacôte remains faithful to his desire to always bring a fantastic if not mystical touch to his films. In Run, his first feature film, which was always based on the memories of this young man whose mission was to kill the Prime Minister, this mystical and dreamlike dimension was already summoned. In The Night of the Kings it’s almost the same pattern, Roman’s memories take us to explore mystical worlds where several battles will take place.
The film, which will be released on 4 December in several cinemas in Ivory Coast, will benefit from a public preview on 2 December at 7 p.m. at the French Institute in Abidjan. A film to see!
You can consult the program of the different screening sessions here.
Rostand Wandja
Discussion about this post