Souleymane Cissé: tribute from a daughter to her father
The relatives of Souleymane Cissé, pioneer of Malian cinema, speak in this tribute film directed by his daughter Fatou Cissé, also presented at the last Montreal Black Film Festival.
This intimate portrait which evokes the difficulties of making cinema in Africa, but also the glories of Souleymane Cissé, tells a lot without saying everything, in particular about his relationship with his wife, the actress Dounamba Dany Coulibaly. “Someone from the outside might have taken a different look, but there, this film comes from the family, there may be things left unsaid”, agrees Kotimi Guira, director of programming for Vues d’ Africa. This film was unveiled at the last Cannes Film Festival, in 2022, where Souleymane Cissé won the Jury Prize in 1987 for Yeelen. The filmmaker will be present at the opening night this Thursday before receiving Le Carrosse d’Or in Cannes next month.
Thursday, 7 p.m., Cinéma Guzzo du Marché Central – Festival opening film
The song of the living
Men and women who have survived illegal immigration find themselves in the French countryside to heal their deep psychological wounds and try to find the words to talk about what they have experienced. “These people don’t know what awaits them when they leave. They often saw people die, they held their hands, they saw children suckle their dying mother’s breast and were not prepared for that, underlines Kotimi Guira. And it is not easy to get out of these traumas. Cécile Allegra’s film is delicate and human, she underlines. It advances at the pace of each of the people who confide in the camera and reveals the healing power of art, also mentioned in the film. Watbah by Giedon Vink.
Friday, 8 p.m., main room
False debate
Two friends from two distinct ethnic groups, Bouba and Ben, must face their differences despite the strong ties that unite them. They will be reunited, because they still share a rare characteristic that could save the life of one of the two. Kotimi Guira insists on the skill of Bobo Herico’s film which manages to evoke complex questions by anchoring it in something deeply human. “He found a clever way of saying that belonging to an ethnic group is just a label that we are asked and that deep down, we are all the same, human beings, she says. Young people don’t want this kind of manipulation anymore – for me, it’s manipulation. And it divides. This film shows that beyond the manipulations, we all have the same blood. »
April 25, 8 p.m., main hall
Mamody, the last baobab digger
It rains very little in the south-west of Madagascar, on the plateau of Mahafaly. However, ingenious villagers had an idea a long time ago that was going to provide them with a water supply: digging the trunks of the baobabs, these giant trees, to transform them into cisterns… “There are family cisterns and other public cisterns , and they fill with water when it rains. What is exceptional, says Kotimi Guira, is that even if the tree is dug, it does not die. When it is no longer usable, it simply closes. The film notably follows researcher Cyrille Cornu, who has been studying baobabs for ten years.
Saturday, noon, main room
The messenger of God
The envoy of the title is the young Fatima, 12, recruited by jihadists who order her to go blow up a bomb in a market. Once deposited near the place of the attack, it will have ten minutes to carry out its disastrous task. “As she walked around, she saw her mother and thought back to her life. I’m not telling you how the film ends,” says Kotimi Guira. Amina Mamani’s film highlights the exploitation of children in the war led by the jihadists and how a child, that is to say a person who is considered easy to manipulate, can question what it is imposed on him.
Saturday, 5:30 p.m., main hall
Most films are screened more than once.