Film Difficulty 3

To help you ease your way into our world, we have devised a the film difficulty ranking system to rate the difficulty of each film reviewed on our site. The easiest to watch films (the Rom-Coms and Superhero flicks that you watch anyway) will have a rating of 1. Foreign language films automatically add one point, as do black and white films, and films with strange and hard to follow plots. Welcome to Film Difficulty 3.

Film Difficulty Ranking 3: More of a challenge for those familiar with foreign films. Level 3 is like a mix between an intriguing European mime artist and your most interesting and demanding school teacher.

If you’ve mastered these films, move onto Film Difficulty Ranking 4.

141

Ashakara – A Togolese Post-Colonial Pharma Heist Movie

ASHAKARA FILM DIFFICULTY RANKING: 2

An African doctor finds a miracle cure to a deadly virus and decides to mass produce the drug at low cost in Africa. However, a pharmaceutical multinational finds out and sends an agent to Africa to sabotage his plans to maintain their position in the industry. Ashakara is an entertaining pseudo-heist movie that pits African medicine against the imperial nature of the big pharmaceutical companies and capitalism.

From: Togo, Africa
Watch: IMDb, Kanopy
Next: Black Girl, Coming from Insanity, In Search of Voodoo

The Breakdown

Ashakara starts with multiple narratives featuring different characters with different intentions regarding the new miracle cure. There’s the African doctor who wants to spread the miracle cure across Africa; a foreigner that has been sent to the country by a big pharmaceutical company to sabotage to ensure their continued profitability worldwide; as well as the African doctor’s assistant who wants to sell the secret recipe of the miracle cure for instant riches. Each party represents a different part of Post-Colonialism: the Doctor represents Africa’s hope for true independence from continued European imperialism, represented by the foreigners of the big pharmaceutical company, whilst the doctor’s assistant represents the global net of capitalism that drives greed and corruption. It’s a film that emphasizes African sustainability, both in the power of African medicine vs. ineffectual western medicine (the prison guard’s constant headaches and the rare disease are only cured by the African fetishist), and the community driven financial support available in tontines vs. the predatory nature of the money lender and big pharma company representing global capitalism. Capitalism and Imperialism drive the villains in this movie.

The initial exposition phase is livened up by the upbeat Togolese music layered in the film and stock shots of the busy Togolese capital city. It imbues the film with energy to keep viewers attentive (including a few musical interludes added for extra effect). The musical presence fades as Ashakara moves into the second half of the movie as the action kicks in to keep the viewers attention.

Ashakara also includes a homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey in the European pharmaceutical agent’s portable artificial intelligence system named VAL (a riff on HAL). The agent carries VAL around in a case throughout the movie and uses it to connect with his demanding boss back in Europe. He also uses it to solve the crime and win his independence from his boss. It’s a surprise Sci-Fi addition to this heist movie that makes the European Pharma company seem even more villainous and perhaps compares Europe’s treatment of Africa as an ‘conquerable area’ to the Space colonization in 2001.

If you’re looking for an African film with plenty of Pro-African themes mixed with a few sci-fi and Voodoo elements backed by African music, dance, and dress, you need to watch Ashakara. It manages to pull together a number of narratives and characters into an entertaining heist movie that pits European imperialism and capitalist greed against indigenous African medicine and culture.

What to Watch Next

If you’re looking for more Post-Colonialist African movies, check out Black Girl from Senegal – one of the most famous films from the continent – or The Burial of Kojo from Ghana if you’re looking for something a bit more experimental.

Or if you’d like to see more films that celebrate indigenous medicine over Western medicine watch Embrace of the Serpent which follows a shaman in the Amazon or In Search of Voodoo to find out more about Voodoo culture in Benin.

Lastly, for more African heist thrillers, go seek out Coming from Insanity from Nigeria.

142

Before, Now & Then – AFI Fest 2022

In Before, Now & Then, Nana finds security in a second marriage to a wealthy old man, having lost her family to the war in West Java. However, she cannot escape the dreams and trauma of her past, or the expectations of her new family and becomes a ghostly figure until she meets one of her husband’s mistresses. Together they can escape and find their own freedom.

Stylistically, Before, Now & Then feels heavily influenced by Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love. Whilst the colors are more muted, the dreamy pacing and slowed down scenes between Nana and her second husband feel just like the slow romantic scenes between the two protagonists in In the Mood for Love. These scenes in both films are designed to convey uncertainty. In In the Mood for Love the uncertainty is romantic – we don’t know if the two characters will keep seeing each other. In Before, Now & Then, the uncertainty is melancholic. Similarly, we don’t know if the two characters will be together for much longer, however given that the two characters have been together for a while, it feels as if their relationship is dying instead of burning brightly.

The uncertainty of Nana’s relationship is symbolic of the state of the country. Just like the current Indonesian regime, she knows what she’s getting from her stable marriage to an older husband. Whilst it has confined her mostly to the house – and the back of the house at that, as she rarely shows her face publicly – she knows that she will be taken care of. However, there is no love in their relationship. The new freedom she gains with her husband’s mistress, in contrast, is exciting. It fills her with hope that things could be different and more free.

Whilst we have the hindsight to know that the political change happening in the background of Before, Now & Then wasn’t a positive one, the film captures the uncertainty of the times well with it’s dreaminess.

Head to our AFI Fest 2022 Hub for more reviews from AFI Fest 2022.

143

The Cathedral – A Laid Back Tour of Port Louis from a Local

THE CATHEDRAL FILM DIFFICULTY RANKING: 2

The Cathedral follows Lina, a young woman wandering Port Louis, the capital city of Mauritius. She interacts with friends and family around the city in a carefree manner which is only challenged (slightly) when her dancing catches the eye of a foreign photographer.

From: Mauritius, Africa
Watch: IMDb, Kanopy
Next: The Courtyard of Songs, Epicentro, Coffee and Cigarettes

The Breakdown

The Cathedral is based on a short story written by Ananda Devi. However, the tone of the film feels completely different from the reviews of the book which emphasize the hopeless poverty of the main characters. In contrast, the film has a very laidback island feel thanks to the light background music, sunshine, and warm colors. It also helps that most of the film follows Lina roaming around Port Louis, stopping at stalls to chat to vendors and catching conversations happening around her. Her wandering gives her and the film a very care-free nature – even the conflict that comes towards the end of the movie doesn’t feel that serious.

However, it does feel like The Cathedral is trying a bit too hard to be poetic. This is particularly noticeable in the two extra narrators that interrupt Lina’s narrative. One is a personified narrative voice of the city’s cathedral. It’s meant to give a poetic character to the city, but it comes across a bit unnatural for a film, as talking buildings are more expected in classroom historical documentaries or children’s shows. The other narrative voice comes from a foreign photographer. Like the cathedral, the photographer’s narrative voice feels strange because it interrupts Lina’s narrative at various points of the film. It’s also never diegetic – instead his narrative voice is layered over him taking exaggerated pictures of locals (which are also awkwardly voyeuristic). Because the two narrators interrupt the flow of the film and feel unnatural next to the film’s images, the poetic impact they’re intended to create doesn’t come across.

It’s also a bit uncomfortable how much Lina is fetishized. Everyone follows her – the camera, the photographer, and the cathedral. The cathedral speaks about how she is the light of the city and that she’d be missed if she ever left; the foreign photographer takes pictures of her dancing in the street without asking, whilst the camera follows her as if she’s the center of a fashion photo shoot. She’s heavily objectified and treated a bit like she’s a pretty bird flying around the city. She also isn’t given any depth. Her character development is overlooked in her care-free wandering character. Perhaps her character’s fetishization is a metaphor for a country still trapped in a web of colonial interests, however it’s more likely that it’s a byproduct of the director’s male gaze. So if you’re looking for a tour around Port Louis from a fetishized young woman, this film might be for you.

The laid back feel, whilst contrasting with the book reviews, at least makes The Cathedral an easy watch. It doesn’t feel too complex, but perhaps there are some deeper themes it alludes to from the book that doesn’t quite translate to the movie.

What to Watch Next

The Cathedral reminded me of a combination of 3 types of films:

The slightly cheesy slice of life sun-drenched dramedies like The Courtyard of Songs from Lisbon which present happy, dreamy city life by the sea.
Movies that bounce between casual conversations like Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes, which make you feel like a fly on the wall of a particular place.
Documentaries that exoticize it’s subjects like Sauper’s Epicentro (in this case it’s a pretty local girl instead of a group of local kids).

144

Trenque Lauquen – AFI Fest 2022

If you’re ready to sit down for a few hours to indulge yourself in some cosy, trivial Argentine mysteries, meet the latest film from El Pampero Cine, Trenque Lauquen.

Trenque Lauquen comes from Laura Citarella, one of the members of El Pampero Cine, a group of filmmakers which also includes Mariano Llinas (La Flor, Extraordinary Stories), Agustin Mendilaharzu, and Alejo Moguilansky. Each of the members of the collective usually pop up in the credits of each other films under different roles, making each of the collective’s films feel like a team effort. They each also use the same actors, so if you’ve seen another of their films before, you’re likely to see a familiar face in this one.

Trenque Lauquen, like it’s El Pampero Cine predecessors, isn’t a light commitment. It’s just over 4 hours long, split roughly equally into two sections which are both tied together by Laura’s character. The entire film takes place in Trenque Lauquen, a city on the far west border of Buenos Aires province near La Pampa. It looks like a pretty unremarkable city, with nothing to really distinguish it from anywhere else in Argentina. However the blandness is all part of the film’s construct. As with the majority of films from the El Pampero Cine collective, Trenque Lauquen uses the mundane as a foundation for it’s engrossing mysteries.

Put best by Magu Fernandez Richeri for La Lista:

El Pampero’s films are, at their core, fairly simple. There aren’t any extraordinary premises, but they also work as tiny odysseys. Characters embark on fantastical adventures where the mundane is re-signified as something strange, new, and magical. The strangeness with which Pampero approaches the world is inherently transformational. Any and all minutiae represents a good excuse for them to tell a story as if we as the audience were kids listening in rapt attention, trying to keep us from seeing the world in its drab normality, allowing us to perceive things differently and hatch crazy schemes.

Trenque Lauquen, like La Flor and Extraordinary Stories, feels like indulgent storytelling. It’s as if the filmmakers of El Pampero Cine have been challenging each other to come up with new quirky mysteries to keep audiences interested for longer periods of time. They haven’t seemed to hit their limits yet as each of their last few films have kept audiences interested just to see where the mysteries lead us. Each of their films is like following a maze or river cruise full of pleasant surprises. Plus the pacing and characters are conducive to our immersion in the mystery; they’re both always patient and never rushed. They create the relaxed environment to let the mystery lead us along. Serious things happen in these films, but because of the tone, it never feels real-world serious. This is why these films are indulgent storytelling – they’re there to simply entertain and nothing more, and they do this better than anyone else in the industry.

Head to our AFI Fest 2022 Hub for more reviews from AFI Fest 2022.

145

Bolot Feray – This Stage Adaption is the a Rare Seychellois Feature Film

Bolot Feray Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Why should you watch Bolot Feray? Because it’s the only Seychellois feature film you’re likely to find to represent the country. It’s an adaption from a comedy theatrical play and will give you an insight into the customs of traditional society in the Seychelles even if you can’t find a copy with subtitles.

From: Seychelles, Africa
Watch: YouTube, Letterboxd
Next: The Grand Marriage, Hand of Fate, Gold Watch

Bolot Feray – The Breakdown

Disclaimer: We couldn’t find this film with English subtitles. If you speak French fluently, you might pick up a few words or phrases, but as the film uses the Seychellois Creole language, it won’t be too much of a help. We decided to watch the film anyway to be able to add the only film we could find from The Seychelles to this site. However, we’ll be looking out for a copy with English subtitles and also for any more films we can review in more depth from the country. If you know of any, please let us know.

It’s pretty obvious that Bolot Feray is adapted from a stage play. Firstly, the film is split into 3 parts with each one taking place in a different location – mimicking the set changes of a stage play. Secondly, there are a few moments where an actor gives an internal monologue to the audience – looking directly at the camera – something very rare in film, but fairly common on stage, particularly in comedies. Lastly, as is typical for stage plays, Bolot Feray focuses on the dialogue more than the visual elements, making the film dialogue heavy with no cinematic innovation. Watching the stage play (also available on YouTube) will likely be a pretty similar experience to watching the movie.

The story features a family getting ready for a wedding. There’s a lot of arguing and debating between both families of the future husband and wife. Unfortunately most of this will go over your head because of the language barrier. However, you get the idea that there is a lot of soapy gossiping and drama in what they’re saying. Despite this, the final part shows the wedding going ahead, complete with speeches and singing.

Whilst there’s not much you’ll be able to understand of this dialogue heavy film if you can’t find a version with subtitles you can understand, watching this film does allow you to see a little insight into the customs of Seychellois culture. Plus, if you’re trying to complete a World Film challenge, you’ll get to see a film from the Seychelles.

What to Watch Next

If you’re looking for more films that are adapted from stage plays, try Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom or Gold Watch. Or if you’re just after the set-piece drama style, you could also try Richard Linklater’s Tape.

Or if you’re after more films about marriage in Africa, there’s The Grand Marriage, a documentary that looks at marriage customs in the Comoros. Or, for more marriage drama, check out Hand of Fate from The Gambia, a family drama centered around the marrying off of a family’s young daughter.