The 27th edition of Fespaco starts on October 16, 2021 and a few hours away from this unmissable event for cinema made in Africa, we are offering 7 films that you will absolutely have to see during the festival.
The Fespaco 2021 will be a special edition, already because it will be held in a post-covid19 context and therefore automatically shows a lot of resilience to stand this year, and also because it will be the first edition of the new team leader led by Alex Moussa Sawadogo. The Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, which brings together the best of African cinema in the Burkinabé capital every two years, will be held from October 16 to 23, 2021 and will have the opening film Atlantics by Senegalese Mati Diop.
Of all the sections that have been unveiled, the one that will be the most popular will indeed be the feature film competition. Competition which entitles the winner to the prestigious Etalon d’Or de Yennenga. When writing your magazine, we have gone through the list of 14 films in the running and we offer you 7 feature films that are our favorites and that you will absolutely have to see during the festival. We are clearly taking a risk and we hope that the Gold Stallion winner of Yennenga will be off our shortlist. We will party like little children and we will say Ayila for sure!
1 – Freda by Gessica Généus
It will certainly be one of the favorites during this Fespaco. Freda de Gessica Géneus conquered the public during the last Cannes Film Festival, offering herself a standing ovation of 8 minutes after her screening in the Un Certain Regard section. The film, which came from Haïti, continues to be talked about in recent days with its release on October 13 in French theaters. The French media and critics are full of praise for this feature film which realistically transcribes the daily life of the inhabitants of Haïti, a small island whose disasters, scandals and political crises do not always contribute to giving it a shining image. It is in this chaotic context that the film was written and directed by Gessica Géneus. And with this first feature film, the director offers the portrait of three young women who, take responsibility for their life choices and try in their own way, to confront a society adrift. It is clear that the Western perspective is not the same as that of the jury which will be responsible for watching the films in competition and especially that Fespaco is not necessarily the place where the films celebrated elsewhere come to impose their domination. Timbuktu (2014), applauded elsewhere, only left Ouaga with the prize for the best poster!
2- The Gravedigger’s Wife by Khadar Ayderus Ahmed
The title of this film alone already makes you want to watch it. Selected for Critics’ Week at the last Cannes Film Festival, The Gravedigger’s Wife directed by Finnish Somali-born Khadar Ayderus Ahmed is a romantic drama that tells the story of Guled and Nasra, a couple in love, living in the neighborhoods poor people of Djibouti with their son Mahad. Their family’s balance is in jeopardy as Nasra suffers from severe kidney disease and needs emergency surgery. The operation is expensive and Guled works hard as a gravedigger to make ends meet: how do you raise the money to save Nasra and keep a family together? The film is a co-production between Finland (the director’s adopted country), Germany and France. The film introduces us in the daily life of a family on the verge of collapse with the background of the daily life of Somalis, torn between tradition and modernity. The film which is based on a beautiful family and social intrigue is a good candidate for the supreme award.
3- Air Conditionner by Fradique
Certainly the strangest and most eclectic film of the selection and of our shortlist. A film that mixes drama and Science-fiction, which mixes realism and magic, in the streets of Luanda, the Angolan capital. The synopsis of the film announces the colors of this particular film: the air conditioners of the Angolan capital begin to mysteriously fail. Security guard Matacedo is sent by his boss to find him an air conditioner before the end of the day, but his meeting with the eccentric owner of an electronics store will change his mission and plunge him into a mysterious world. The film enjoyed an international premiere during the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2020. Even if Fespaco has always favored classic works in the choice of its Golden Stallions, the fact remains that this film in winning the supreme award would represent an opening of the festival to new aesthetic approaches. Air Conditionner keeps all its chances especially because in the background the film questions in a singular way the colonial heritage of Angola and by extension of Africa.
4- Night of The Kings by Philippe Lacôte
It is the most popular Ivorian film at the moment. Selected at the Monstra in Venice, at the Toronto International Film Festival, representing Ivory Coast at the 2021 Oscars, Grand Prix of the International Freiburg Festival, Night of The Kings leaves no one indifferent in its path. This prison film, which mixes a fantastic and poetic story with political overtones, plunges the viewer into the prison world without trying to take a stand or point the finger but simply presenting a world, admittedly unknown to the general public, a world with its codes, with its laws, with its own humanity. A must-see movie !
5- Lingui by Mahamat Saleh Haroun
This is the new film by Chadian filmmaker Mahamat Saleh Haroun. It must be said, each new film by this filmmaker is an event in itself. Not only because he is the only known Chadian director, but also because he has developed over the years a particular aesthetic and artistic approach with each of his films. With this new feature film Mahamat will once again try to win the Gold Stallion of Yennenga, he who won the Bronze Stallion in 2007 with his film Daratt and the Silver Stallion in 2011 with Un homme qui crie. Lingui may be the opportunity for the Chadian filmmaker to finally win the Golden Stallion, which is missing from his collection of trophies. Lingui, who was in official competition at the last Cannes film festival, brings up the still taboo question of abortion and that of female circumcision in Africa. The screening of this film during the festival will undoubtedly be an event!
6- The White Line by Desiree Kahikopo
The White Line, the first feature film by Namibian Desiree Kahikopo, is a film that finds its full meaning in today’s world. Because the film take us in one of the worst period of history of Est Africa. In a Namibia under the weight of apartheid, a young black servant girl and a white police officer make love. An “unhealthy” relationship, for the time, that will bring them all the torment. A racial segregation whose echo is still noticeable today through racism. So this is a current film that deserves to be highlighted. The film, released in Namibia in 2019, won the 2020 Kilimanjaro Award for Best Film at the Africlap Festival and the main actress Girley Jazama, who we received with the director during the Talk Cine, was nominated for the African Movie Academy Awards. in the Best Leading Actor category. The film, which is based on a strong theme like the Fespaco likes it, could therefore come home with the Gold Standard.
7- Baamum Nafi by Mamadou Dia
Senegal, the country in honor at this edition of Fespaco, is represented in the official competition by the film Baamum Nafi directed by Mamadou Dia. A film that is completely in tune with the times because it is about terrorism and radicalization in the film. A completely harmless family drama becomes the open door for the radicalization of an entire village. In the current security context in West and Central Africa, the film finds all its interest and its raison d’être. A must-see movie.
*** Les Trois Lascars by Boubakar Diallo
We said in titles 7 films, but hey, let’s give a nod to the film Les Trois Lascars by Boubakar Diallo. True to himself, the Burkinabé director, founder of Les Films du Dromadaire, has chosen one; to make low budget films without having to spend endless years reaching out to international box offices that have their vision of African cinema, two; to offer light stories but well anchored in daily realities to allow spectators to have a good time. Because after all we go to the cinema, not to do philosophy, but to have a good time. An editorial line that works well for him with films such as Sam le Caïd (2007) Julie and Romeo (2011), Marriage Leave (2012). With Les Trois Lascars, Boubakar is no exception to the rule and offers us a film whose summary alone already promises that we will have a good laugh: the misadventures of three lads with their Tchiza [Mistresses, Editor’s note] during a trip that turns into disaster. Just that ! In a social context marked by social crises, it will change a bit for us to see a film that is lighter and full of freshness to have The Stallion even if it is not Gold at least Silver or Bronze.
Our little journey ends here knowing that it is the jury led by the Mauritanian Abderrahmane Sissako who will have the last word on the evening of October 23, 2021!
Rostand Wandja
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