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Wanbilé Nabie, director Burkinabé is a unique person in his environment: he is a scarified. Its tradition has imposed it as an identity mark of its Bwaba ethnic group. Ignorant of all the culture that disappeared, which was the culture of his forefathers, he decides to go back through his history and find answers. He proposes a documentary accentuated by a visual where he agency the sculpture, the images, its history and that of an entire people.
Director and film critic Élise Kameni met him for you.
Ayila: Why this film «The Scarifiés»?
Wanbilé Nabie: Making this film is to talk about our identity, the history of the Bwaba ethnic group that had already established its identity card before the arrival of the settler and his paper. And today this culture so much to disappear because it is henceforth forbidden.
Ayila: How did you cast your protagonists?
W.N. : I wrote a script based on myself and my family and the people who lived moments of my life together as classmates and others…
Ayila: How did you write this film? Was it before or after the casting?
W.N. : I wrote the script after having all the characters in my head, it gave me the imagination and how to tell the story with this or that character.
Ayila: how long was the shooting and was it difficult?
W.N. : The shooting lasted three weeks and it wasn’t difficult… all the characters were happy to give their testimony.
Ayila: You went in search of answers, and the theme is quite related to your story, What changed after making this film?
W.N. : Nothing has changed. However, I have learned about scarification. As they were a kind of protection, the names of certain milkings, I also knew that my family was responsible for scarification before passing it on to the griots.
Ayila: Your artistic approach of moving from the face to the mask is certainly not insignificant?
W.N. : It’s the film, I was in the same case… so I decided to go to the source and find out more.
Ayila: Your film brings to the surface the identity crisis that many people face and the ignorance on certain subjects, what solutions can you propose to overcome that?
W.N. : I made this film to talk about all those people who do scarifications as ethnic identification.
Ayila: Even if the background of the subject is essential, the graphic aspect is great, how did you proceed to arrive at this result?
W.N. : I don’t know what the degree of my film is, it’s up to the audience to tell me that the film has a very satisfying result. If it’s a good result I’m happy.
Ayila: What is your feeling at the announcement of your selection to the Black Screens?
W.N. : I was happy, I told myself that my film is a good film because without an acquaintance in Cameroon, it was selected. So by its quality.
Ayila: A final word?
W.N. : Thank you to the organizers of the Ecrans Noirs festival, to all those who came to see the film, to all those medias who spoke about the film.
An interview by Elise Kameni,
filmmaker and film critic
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