Rêves de poussière

Title: Rêves de poussière (Dreams of Dust)

Director: Laurent Salgues

Writer: Laurent Salgues

Year: 2006

Running time:  83 minutes

Country: Burkina Faso

Plot summary:

Mocktar Dicko, a Nigerian peasant, comes looking for work in Essekane, a gold mine in Northeast Burkina Faso. In this cage made of wind and dust, he hopes to forget the past that haunts him. He becomes friend with his boss and his colleagues and with a prostitute Tabassa and a young widow, Coumba, who dreams about sending her daughter to Denmark, where her uncle lives. While becoming familiar with his new life, Mocktar Dicko starts to loose his roots. The day he discover a piece of gold, decides not to go home and offers the money earned by selling the gold to Coumba.

Some critics:

Jugu Abraham - 13th International Film Festival of Kerala, Festival Reports, Highlights, Featured - 16 décembre 2008 (dearcinema.com)

Dreams of Dust was important for me as it showed the competence of a talented director making a debut with his own script. Director Laurent Salgues was so impressive with this film that a particular shot of a woman seen through a cascade of water elicited a spontaneous clapping from the knowledgeable audience. The film is a story of Nigerien (from Niger, not Nigeria) gold prospector seeking gold in neighboring country Burkina Faso. One would think this is "Blood Diamond" revisited. Towards the final half hour of the film, the story evolves from mere "sweat-and-blood' tale of an expatriate into a metaphysical, psychological tale with visuals that remind of Kubrick's visual metaphors. The film won attention at Sundance and I can see several reasons for it. The film presents the nobility and elegance of African men and women, rarely seen on cinema. I can probably appreciate the film better because I have visited rural areas of the two countries indirectly discussed. I strongly recommend this film for its direction, its allegorical script, the fine performances and last, but not least, the superb camerawork of Crystel Fournier. It ought to be in the run for all the three major awards at IIFK.

John Nein - Sundance Film Festival - January 18-28, 2007

The characters in Laurent Salgues's entrancing debut feature occupy both a literal and figurative netherworld. Pulling amazing textures from the windswept wasteland, his widescreen images are hypnotic. But it's the camera's evocation of people that is most striking. Salgues is more interested in showing us inner landscapes -- and the dignity of these souls that seem to erode before us. For the rest, it's cruel irony that they are so close to gold but so far from happiness.

In an amazingly stoic performance, Makena Diop conveys an entire journey of self-discovery. We have only a vague sense of Mocktar's wounds, but it's clear that riches will not salve them.

© Text: www.laurentsalgues.com

Sia, Le Rêve du Python

Title: Sia, Le Rêve du Python

Director: Dani Kouyaté

Writer: Dani Kouyaté and Moussa Diagana

Year: 2001

Running time: 96 minutes

Country: Burkina Faso

Plot summary:

Kaya Maghan, the despotic king of Wagadou, follows the instructions of his priest by ordering the religious sacrifice to the Python God of Sia Yatabene, the virgin daughter of a notable family. A gift of gold equivalent to Sia’s weight is given to her family as compensation for surrendering their daughter for the sacrifice. However, Sia runs away and finds shelter in the home of a mad prophet who has railed against the king. The king orders his top general to locate Sia, but the general is conflicted since Sia was engaged to marry his nephew, Mamadi, who is in battle on behalf of the kingdom. Mamadi returns and joins his uncle to do battle against the Python God.

The inspiration of Sia, le rêve du python is a seventh-century myth of the Wagadu people of Western Africa, which was adapted into the play La légende du Wagudu vue par Sia Yatabéré by Mauritanian writer Moussa Diagana. He also adapted the screenplay with filmmaker Dani Kouyaté.

© Text: Wikipedia

Tilaï

Title: Tilaï

Director: Idrissa Ouedraogo

Writer: Idrissa Ouedraogo

Year: 1990

Running time: 81 minutes

Country: Burkina Faso

Plot summary:

Saga returns to his village after a long absence, and finds that his father has married Nogma, his fiancee, during his leave. Nogma has become his second wife, and by law, Saga's mother. Saga runs away and builds a straw hut near the village. Still in love, Saga and Nogma begin an affair, with Nogma telling her parents she is going to visit her aunt, then running to Saga's hut. After the affair is discovered, Saga's father decrees that he must die for dishonoring the family. Nogma's father hangs himself from a tree, and Nogma is disowned by her mother at her father's funeral. Saga's brother Kougri is selected to execute Saga. He pretends to kill Saga so as to restore the family's honor. Saga and Nogma then run away to another village, and the family falls apart. As Saga and Nogma begin to build a life, Nogma tells Saga that she is pregnant. Meanwhile, Kougri comes to regret his failiure to kill Saga. After Saga's birth mother dies, Saga returns to the village, exposing Kougri's failure to carry out his father's orders. Kourgri's father tells him he is banished. Kourgi then picks up Saga's rifle and shoots him for having brought ruin to the family and his own life. He then walks off into exile and probable death.

© Text: Wikipedia

Yaaba

Title: Yaaba

Director: Idrissa Ouedraogo

Writer: Idrissa Ouedraogo

Year: 1989

Running time: 90 minutes

Country: Burkina Faso

Plot summary:

The film is set in a small African village. Bila (Noufou Ouédraogo) is a ten year old boy who makes friends with an old woman called Sana (Fatimata Sanga), who has been accused of witchcraft by her village, and has become a social outcast. Only Bila is respectful of her, and calls her "Yaaba" (Grandmother). When Bila's cousin, Nopoko (Roukietou Barry), falls ill, a medicine man insists that Sana has stolen the girl's soul. Sana undergoes a long and grueling journey to find a medicine to save Nopoko's life. Sana manages to save Nopoko's life, but is still treated as a witch. After Sana dies, the real reason why she is hated in the village is uncovered, but her love and wisdom she invested in Bila and Nopoko lives on.

© Text and image: Wikipedia

Keïta! L'héritage du Griot

Title: Keïta! L'héritage du Griot

Director: Dani Kouyaté

Writer: Dani Kouyaté

Year: 1994

Running time:  94 minutes

Country: Burkina Faso

Plot summary:

Keita is a retelling of the first third of Sundjata Keita's 13th century epic, Sundjata. It tells of Mabo Keïta (Hamed Dicko), a thirteen-year-old boy who lives in a middle-class family in Ouagadougou and attends a geed school. One day he encounters Djeliba Kouyate (Sotigui Kouyate), an elderly griot who wants to tell the young Keïta the origin of his name, being related to Sundata (Seydou Boro). Kouyate begins his story with the Mandeng creation myth: As all living beings come together in the newly-formed Earth, one man proclaims to the masses that he wants to be their king. They respond, "We do not hate you." The old griot goes on to tell how Keita's family are descended from buffalo, the blackbirds are always watching him, and how people have roots that are deep in the earth. The film shows realistic-looking flashbacks to ancient times and ends with Sundjata Keita being exiled from the Kingdom of Mande, to which he lays claim.

© Text and photo: Wikipedia

Moolaadé

Title: Moolaadé (Magical protection)

Director: Ousmane Sembène

Writer: Ousmane Sembène

Year: 2004

Running time: 120 minutes

Country: Burkina Faso and France

Plot summary:

Moolaadé ("magical protection") is a 2004 African feature film by Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène. It addresses the subject of female genital cutting or mutilation, a common practice in a number of African countries, especially nations immediately south of the Sahara Desert. The film is a co-production between companies from several Francophone nations: Senegal, France, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Morocco and Tunisia. It was filmed in the remote village of Djerrisso, Burkina Faso.

The film is set in a village in Burkina Faso. The film argues strongly against the practice, depicting a village woman, Colle, who uses moolaadé (magical protection) to protect a group of girls. She is opposed by the villagers who believe in the necessity of circumcision, which they call purification.

© Text and image: Wikipedia

Les Gan du Burkina Faso

Activity: Book presentation

Title: Les Gan du Burkina Faso

Author: Daniela Bagnolo

Place: Fischbacher Art Books, 33 rue de Seine, Paris

Webpage: www.librairiefischbacher.fr

Pages: 176

Price: 35 €

Publisher: Fondation Culturelle Musée Barbier-Mueller

Comments:

In March 2010 was presented the Barbier-Mueller Museum Cultural Foundation with the support of Vacheron Constantin to an audience of special guests and journalists gathered at the Primitive Art Museum on Quai Branly in Paris. The purpose of this foundation is to bear testimony to the forgotten peoples and little-known cultures, and to provide international support for anthropological observatory missions, publications and conferences.

This partnership has given rise to the noteworthy collection of “Métiers d’Art – Les Masques” watches, and expresses the brand’s attachment to the colourful tapestry of the human race, however diverse and remote. This project has already taken the form of sponsoring two studies.

The first one is already published and will be presented next saturday 9th of October at the Fischbacher library in Paris by its author, the italian anthropologist Daniela Bognolo a specialist on Burkina Faso, and deals with a “little-known ethic group”, the Gan.

The second, carried out by Alain-Michel Boyer among the Wan, Mona and Koyaga peoples of central Ivory Coast, should be released by the end of the year.

The DOGON of Mali and Burkina Fasso

PEOPLES OF THE WORLD
Name: Dogon
Living Area: Mali and Burkina Fasso (Africa)
Population: 400.000 - 800.000
Language: Dogon (related to Mandé and Gur languages)
First european contact: Krause (1860s)
Comments: The Dogon people live in the region of the semi-arid Bandiagara plateau and sandstone cliffs, and in the Seno-Gondo plain. As soon as the 15th century, the Dogon already inhabited the Bandiagara cliffs region, although they had previously replaced an older population known as the Tellem (which lived there from the 11th century, and whose textile remains, such as burial blankets and clothing, are considered the oldest organic materials from archaeological contexts preserved in sub-Saharan Africa). Even an older population, named the Tolloy, is said to have previously lived in the area.
The Dogon live in rectangular mudbrick or stone/mud-covered buildings in small villages near the cultivated parcels and water supplies. They cultivate and recollect mainly millet, which they store in big grain stores. Onions, peppers, carrots, lettuce and cabbage are grown for sale at local markets. Domestic animals include goats, donkeys, some cattle, and chickens. Wild fruits and plants complement the diet and serve as traditional medicine. Hunting is not of economic importance, but brings prestige.
Several crafts are practiced by the Dogon. Weaving is typically a male craft. While women spin the cotton, it is the men who are responsible for weaving long bands of cloth. Pottery making is mainly a female craft. The blacksmiths make and repair agricultural tools, jewellery and other metal products. Also, they are responsible for woodwork, such as producing masks and statues. Leatherworkers fabricate bags, sheaths for knifes, saddles, and shoes among other items. In recent years blacksmiths as well as leatherworkers, have become more and more involved in the production and trade of souvenirs. The souvenir-trade has become an important source of income and employment in Mali. Many young Dogon earn their living as guides. In the villages, facilities for tourists have been created, providing a significant source of income for some.
Though much influenced by Islam, there are some christian villages and some other remain still practising their ancestral animist religion that worships creator god Amma.
Historically studied by french anthropologists, the great affluence of these among the dogon resulted in a well-known joke: "Do you know how many people live in a Dogon house? Five: the parents, two children and the french anthropologist".
Both men and women get circumcised during their childhood. Dogon myth explains the necessity to remove the female element (the prepuce) from a boy’s body to enable him to become a man. Similarly, the removal of the clitoris, thought to be the male element in girls, is considered necessary for them to become women. The excision of girls takes place within the villages, in contrast to circumcision ceremonies, that take place outside the village boundaries. Although circumcision is justified by Dogon myth and therefore appears long established, it is possible that this ritual has been adopted only in the more recent past under the influence of Islam and merged with local initiation rites.
Well-known by: their mask dances at the occasion o funerary festivals (such as the nyou yama, dama, or the Sigui). The Sigui is the most important ceremony of the Dogon. It takes place every 60 years and can take several years. The last one started in 1967 and ended in 1973, the next one will start in 2027. The Sigui ceremony symbolises the death of the first ancestor till the moment that humanity acquired the use of the spoken word. The Sigui is a long procession that starts and ends in the village of Youga Dogorou and goes from one village to the other during several months or years. All men wear masks and dance in long processions. The Sigui has a secret language, Sigui So, that women are not allowed to learn. Some men, called the Olubaru, form the secret society of Sigui that plays a central role in the ceremony. They prepare the ceremonies a long time in advance, and they live for three months hidden outside of the villages while nobody is allowed to see them. The villagers are afraid of them and fear is cultivated by a prohibition to go out at night, when sounds warn that the Olubaru are out. The most important mask that plays a major role in the Sigui rituals is the Great Mask or the Mother of Masks. It is several meters long and is just held up by hand and not used to hide a face. This mask is newly created every 60 years.
Some words in their language:
hello: seuw
my name is ... : boy ma ...
yes: ha
no: ay
au revoir: konè
Learn more about them at: Dogon article in Wikipedia