Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso — The 17th pan-African film and television festival, which opened in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou on Saturday, came into its own on Monday night. The festival was in full swing, with the screening of what appeared to be two immensely popular movies, both strong contenders for the prestigious Yennenga Stallion award at FESPACO 2001. Both films attracted huge audiences and rapturous applause and appreciation.
Friendly pushing and shoving were the order of the day at one Ouagadougou cinema house in Burkina Faso as anxious and enthusiastic festival goers thronged to the Cine Neerwaya to catch a homegrown movie, Sia Le Reve du Python (Sia, the Dream of the Python), by a local Burkinabe filmmaker, Dany Kouyate, who is 39.
The film tells the history of a tyrant king and a mystical Snake God. A group of honourable men, who are dubbed the killers of the python and are helped by their honourable women, take over the realm after the king orders the human sacrifice of the most beautiful village virgin to placate the Python God. But the palace coup goes awry. Sia is a lyrical age-old tragi-comic tale of goodies, baddies and curses, with the heroes, heroines and villains in spectacular costumes and settings.
Hours before Sia was shown at Cine Neerwaya, another film caused as much of stir at the same movie house on Monday evening, with standing room only. Battu, the latest movie directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali, is set in the Senegalese capital Dakar and pits a group of wily, determined and articulate beggars against the authorities who brutally remove them from the city, because they are considered an eyesore which will discourage tourists.
Battu presents the idea that beggars are essential for the smooth running of society. A local politician, who desperately wants to be appointed vice president, wins plaudits from his superiors for sweeping the streets clean of beggars and undesirables. The problem is that his marabout, a spiritual advisor, instructs him to give alms to beggars - who must return to their strategic positions around the city center - or his luck will change.
The twist in the tale is that the beggars outsmart the politician, organizing a begging strike that turns the tables on their main tormentor, because they refuse to accept his offerings, now that they are settled in their new homes. The actors take on their adversary with humour and verve in a fast-moving, attractively-packaged product.
Graft and political intrigue are at the core of the storyline of Battu, based on the novel, The Strike of the Begging Bowl, by the Senegalese writer Aminata Sow Fall. The Hollywood actor, Danny Glover, - a favourite among African cinema lovers, who has established close links with the continent -- plays a starring role as a corrupt and grasping aspiring politician in Sissoko's popular film.
What both films had in common was commendable cinematography, texture and pace.
The acting in Kouyate's Sia was theatrical, and sometimes flamboyant, but the film clearly touched a chord with the audiences. There was appreciative laughter and comments throughout the screening from viewers, who understood Malinke - the rich language of the film.
The audience particularly enjoyed what appeared to be a clever, humorous and well-written script, especially the quips and one-liners from a griot (a praise singer) and court jester-cum-opportunist extraordinaire who alternately switched his allegiance and his eulogies between the King and his usurpers during the power struggle.
The modern urban, upbeat setting of Sissoko's Battu, his fifth film, in which the beggars are driven out of the city center into a shantytown on the outskirts, was quite different. The blind beggar, played by the Cameroonian actor Isaac de Bankole who turned out to be the narrator and conscience of the group, exposes a corrupt political system that the filmmaker Sissoko says could be anywhere in Africa.
The audience rose and gave a standing ovation to Battu as the soundtrack, by Angelique Kidjo of Benin, played out the film. They clapped and danced to the catchy theme music over the closing credits of the film.
As they left the cinema, many people told allAfrica.com they thought Battu could and should win the best film award at FESPACO, because it was original and simply the best - in both acting and direction.
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"Wasn't that amazing, an amazing film at several levels?" said Djibril one excited film-goer, after he watched Battu. "The combination of so many levels of social factors was done with such humour and such power that one can only be amazed".
Djibril also commended the mix of African actors and actors from outside, especially Danny Glover's role which he described as "just incredible" . "Danny Glover was not only playing a Senegalese minister, but he was voiced over in French and in English - he had a very strong African accent, even in his English language - and that came across very, very well indeed".
"Cheick Oumar Sissoko always hits just the right button," said another festival-goer Adam Ouologuem, herself a Malian like Sissoko, "he goes straight to the heart." She said she could relate to the beggars in his film, whom she described as part of the landscape - camped out even outside movie houses -- in any predominantly Islamic African country, where giving alms to the poor and destitute is a religious obligation. And, Ouologuem concluded, the way Sissoko dealt with the subject of beggars was a daring first for Africa.
