Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso — The Gabonese director of the movie "Les Couilles de lElephant" (The Elephants Balls), which opens Fespaco 2001, the 17th pan-African festival of film and television, calls his movie a love story, though you might not guess it from the title. Koumba describes it as a story of love and friendship, against a political backdrop.
His is one of twenty films which are competing - in the full-length feature category - for the most coveted "Stallion of Yennenga" award at Fespaco. "The Elephants Balls" has been selected as the opening film to kick off seven days of viewing and vying at Africas most prestigious cinema festival, which is held every two years and starts on Saturday evening in the capital, Ouagadougou.
Koumbas first feature film tells the tale of a member of parliament with an eye for women, whose wife accuses him of chasing every skirt in sight. She decides she must hold onto her man at all cost and by all means, as well as bring him down to earth, "to restore his wisdom". The Gabonese cineaste said there was an element of the thriller in his movie -- and mystique, a lyrical translation, by his own admission, for the practice of juju or black magic.
"This is a thoroughly modern African film, with a touch of the traditional - juju and pharmaceutical potions. Mine is a film which straddles two worlds," added Koumba, though he refused to reveal the outcome of "The Elephants Balls".
This is the second time a movie by Koumba has been presented at Fespaco. In 1987, his short film "Le Singe Fou" (The Mad Monkey) carried off the Grand Prix in the short fiction film category.
Over the next week, movie-goers, as well as film buffs, plus a roll call of whos who in African cinema, will have the opportunity in Ouagadougou to watch movies, debate the state of film on the continent, and decide what can be done to enhance and improve it.
The theme of the festival, "Cinema and new technologies", is likely to weave its way through the discussions and forum presentations that go hand in hand with daily screenings of all the films in competition, as well as many others just taking advantage of the very special audience in town for the festival.
Henri Koumbas home country, Gabon, has not featured prominently at Fespaco for two decades, though that has changed this year, with two full-length Gabonese-made films in competition. Gabon is also represented in the short fiction film, as well as the television and documentaries categories.
Asked to explain the resurgence in filmmaking in Gabon, Koumba said the authorities back home were now taking more interest in the art and helping to fund cinema projects. But he acknowledged that most financing to make movies in his country came from western partners. Partnerships with other African countries and film directors had also helped to kick start what had become a dying art in Gabon.
Both Gabonese feature-length films at Fespaco 2001 are made on celluloid. But Koumba said digital video was becoming the norm for television production.
As locals and visitors settle into the week-long bonanza of African cinema in Ouagadougou, the perennial questions are bound to crop up. Who are African films made for and are they the sort that African film-goers want to watch?
When most anecdotal evidence indicates that a staple diet of Hollywood action movies, Kung Fu kick-flicks and Hindi Bollywood blockbusters are most popular among cinema audiences in Africa, many people are asking whether the arthouse style of African cinema, that dominates the prestigious festivals, is passé and elitist.
A clarion call has gone out for more comedies, more thrillers and African action movies which may turn the tide and profit from the huge appetite on the continent for films imported from Asia and America. New digitial video technology , which is less costly than celluloid, may lead the way in producing an inviting array of African fare for African cinema houses in the future.
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Henri Koumba, meanwhile, is hoping that his Gabonese thriller-cum-love-story, which is both modern and traditional with a touch of humour, will hit just the right note with African and foreign audiences at Fespaco 2001 and make his new film "The Elephants Balls" another award winner in Burkina Faso.
Meanwhile, although film is clearly the number one topic in Ouagadougou for the next week or so, the battle between the love of film and soccer appeared to get the better of the Burkinabe on Saturday.
A scheduled African Cup of Nations' qualifier between Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe, in the second city Bobo Dioulasso, looked set to delay the official opening of Fespaco 2001, so that soccer fans could cheer and watch their national team, before turning their full attention to African cinema.
