Pousse-Pousse loves Rose and wants to marry her. But the custom wants that to marry a girl one has to pay a dowry to her parents. Pousse-Pousse is not very happy with that, since he’s also aiming at acquiring motor-cart to improve his job…Read More »
Winner of the Prix Afrique en Creation at Cannes in 1992, this humorous and magical tale is filled with the sexual antics that enliven a working class neighborhood in Yaounde. A girl takes on the body of a man and learns the true sexual politics of the men around her. In addition, the woman who helps her achieve this transformation metamorphoses herself into Panka, a comic figure who can make a man’s penis disappear with a handshake.Read More »
A young diplomat is prey to the sarcasm of his own “boy”, who sees in him one of the many black-skinned Europeans totally lacking in authenticity and adrift between two cultures. But this adaptation of a novella by Francis Bebey is not limited to this simple contrast. The black man may well fall for the deceptive seductiveness of the blonde woman, but this same white beauty just as easily allows herself to be seduced by the mystery of black Africa. After all, the stereotype differences between Blacks and Whites can never tell the whole story. This culture clash is also the story of a master and his servant, of a director and his secretary, of the same director and the director-general, of a husband and his wife. It cannot be by chance that in the end, after a ritual invasion of his own living room, the diplomat rediscovers his identity by means of the mask, which as we know always conceals and reveals at the same time.Read More »
Through interviews as intimate as they are disconcerting, we meet Delphine, a Cameroonian immigrant residing in Belgium who narrates her life for the camera of Rosine Mbakam, also originally from Cameroon. As in her previous feature film “At Jolie Coiffure” (awarded at Olhar ’19), concise elements become a cinematographic force based on the encounter between black women all at once close and distant. The protagonist’s confessional tone reveals her self-awareness as the conductor of her own story, dealing with patriarchal and colonial scars and striving to assert her own voice.Read More »
Proud and determined, the hunter set out, leaving behind his village ravaged by a terrible drought. All the villagers came out to wish him well, and everyone gave what he could: an egg, a handful of peanuts or a few kola nuts… As in the folktale, Sobgui, a former computer programmer who now drives a “clando” cab in Douala, flees to Europe to escape a life in Cameroon which has become unbearable. In Cologne (Germany), Sobgui joins a community of African emigrants. Most are hard-working and ambitious people. Sobgui begins a love affair with Madeleine, a German political activist who encourages Sobgui and his friends to return home and fight for change.
– Written by JM Teno.usRead More »
Quote:
Ngando and Ndomé share an extremely perfect love. Yet, tradition demands a dowry for Ndomé’s hand that Ngando, an orphan, cannot afford. Forced to ask his uncle for assistance, Ngando finds himself at the mercy of his uncle’s lust and greed.
Muna Moto AKA The Child of Another (1975) is Cameroon’s first feature-length film. It is a classical story of doomed loved told in an African context. It is directed by Jean-Pierre Dikongue Pipa and features gorgeous black-and-white cinematography.
It won the 1975 FESPACO prize for best African film and was featured in Sight & Sound’s “75 Hidden Gems: The Great Films Time Forgot” in which 75 critics were asked to pick one film each that they considered “unduly obscure and worthy of greater eminence.
Mostra of Venice: official selection(1975).Read More »
Two legal crusaders from Kumba, Cameroon, determined to see that justice is served and make a difference from within the system, are the focus of this documentary from filmmakers Kim Longinotto and Florence Ayisi. Vera Ngassa is a prosecutor unafraid to take on unpopular causes, and Beatrice Ntuba is a judge who doesn’t hide her outrage when a case rubs her the wrong way. Unlike many legal workers, Ngassa and Ntuba vow to actively include themselves in the lives of those who seek justice. From the caring consideration shown to a young girl who has obviously suffered abuse at the hands of her parents to the noble support shown to a battered Muslim woman brave enough to take her husband to court for spousal abuse, the support shown by Ntuba and Ngassa to their clients is unparalleled, and offers a ray of hope to those who may feel that all is lost.Read More »
Storyline
This documentary of repressive political realities in Cameroon begins with the 1990 publication of an open letter to President Biya calling for a national conference – and the immediate arrest of the letter’s author and publisher. The narration then examines the nation’s colonial history, beginning with the first German missionary in 1901, the establishment of schools, French occupation following World War I, the paucity of books written by and published by Cameroonians, and the repression of the CPU, a leftist organization of the 1950s and 1960s. Cameroon and its people are the lark, its feathers plucked first by colonialism and then by native strongmen: ‘Alouette, je te plumerai.’ Written by jhaileyRead More »