Helen's Blog /

Outstanding films of developing countries, cinephiles and friends gathered together again, September 8th, 2010, on the Adriatic Coast, for the Kinotok Isola Cinema Festival - a laid-back feast of cinema off the beaten track in Slovenia.

This charming Mediterranean town, until year 1796, was a former part of the Republic of Venice, across the Bay of Trieste, famous for its fishing, fish processing, sailors, olive oil and wine trade. Several mediaeval architectural gems in its centre, such as the Manzioli and Lovistato Palaces, where the festival evening outdoor screenings are held next to the restored Church of St. Mary of Alieto, are reached by meandering through winding old cobble-stone streets. There is a nice battered feeling to the port, not yet reeling in sophistication, as its neighboring Italian beaches.

Kicking off the inaugural session in the Izola Culture Centre and introduced by the Mayor of Izola and the Festival Director, Lorena Pavlič, was "Tell Me Who You Are " by Malian director Souleymane Cisse.

Lorena Pavlič from Koper is very familiar with life in a small area where different languages, cultures and people interweave. As she says herself, life in Istria has taught her that "tolerance among people can grow into understanding and respect." It's these qualities that serve as guidance of the Isola Cinema activity, which has, since its very beginning, been characterized by interweaving different ideas, cultures, languages, and people.

Isola Cinema is thus actually becoming a mirror of the region, which has already for centuries been proving that multicultural environment is more than just an expression.

Lorena Pavlič, direktorica festivala Kino Otok

Min Ye… ("Tell Me Who You Are") is Soleiman Cisse's first feature after a decade, funded mainly by French film institutions and national TV and vido concerns. Dealing with a more modern theme than usual for Cisse, he here portrays rich Bamako bourgeois and their immoral polygamous society where a "Madame Du Barry" leading character, middle-aged married doctor, Mimi (Sokona Gakou), engages in a frivolous affair with the much younger Abba (Alou Sissoko), himself wed to a jealous and vengeful woman.

Her flamboyant gowns, heavy make-up, black dreadlocks and chiming mobile give her an emancipated countenance when in fact, her future decisions are controlled by three traditional sisters-in-law, who disapprove her divorce, throwing their weight around, even by cell phone, and determining the future. A mama-benz type powerful woman in African society might give her economic clout and success in her career but, in Cissé's Malian society; she cannot transgress certain traditional roles easily.

Mimi's jealous husband, film director Issa (Assane Kouyaté) takes the adulterous matter to court and we get a glimpse of reporting bailiffs and court hearings for adultery in Mali, a Muslim country. The director also focuses on corruption in police circles, where upper-crust citizens grease the palms of police and legal officials for getting off the hook in cases being caught in the adulterous act.

Soleiman Cisse/ Min Ye… (Tell Me Who You Are)

Cissé learned filmmaking in Moscow in the early Sixties, and has now had to adapt to television requisites as TV has become an important vector for financing in Mali. Since he lives in his home country, he must look to television and video for help if he wants to produce and direct films. That explains why "Min Ye" is a new type of way of filming, geared more to popular audiences who love serials, allowing the otherwise absent former Cannes Festival Palm Award winner master show his different arrays of talent to the public.

Soleiman Cisse, present for the opening night screening of his film, is also President of UCECAO, Union of West African Cinema and Audiovisual Designers and Entrepreneurs, whose aim is to mobilize cinema and audiovisual production professionals, socio-economic operators and public authorities towards a new expansion of West African cinema. He has set up JaSo, the West African House of Image Project. He explains: " After several years of dialogue with various actors, specifically during UCECAO's Bamako Cinematographic Assemblies, it seemed essential to build a structure able to act as an energy convergence point for West African audiovisual production and so was born the JaSo project: the House of Image, serving professionals, amateurs and youths, to ensure that their passion becomes their vocation, and later, their profession."

Owner of 1.16 hectares of land along the Niger River and inspired by the cultural and professional mission of JaSo, the UCECAO seeks to undertake architectural studies in order to launch a consultative process among various potential financial partners, to immediately begin solidifying this theoretical project having now come of age. JaSo's cultural and professional missions are to develop African cinematographic heritage, conserve African cinematographic and audiovisual memory, increase public awareness and youth coaching and professional capacity building.

And finally, to underline the difficult context: In the 21st Century, images have become the primary means for the transmission and sharing of ideas, knowledge, culture and the imaginary. Film, fiction, documentaries and clips are works that contribute to the enrichment of the human spirit, that seek to tell stories through imagery, and they are a reflection of a modern era we must learn to master.

Condemned by their virtual inexistence, West African productions and unable to find their proper place within the international audiovisual and cinematographic sector. This situation impedes any emergence of a true market where cultural exchanges would encourage the economic benefits sought by all. But the West African audiovisual and cinematographic sector suffers from a lack of structure and regional strategy. This situation is particularly exemplified by:

• The difficulties experienced by African filmmakers in obtaining appropriate responses thereby disabling the role of cinema and audiovisual production as a vehicle for dreaming, education, meditation and swift promotion of other economic sectors;
• The exclusion of African films from world screens and of the potential vehicle that can be the African market;
• The sector's financial, economical and socio-cultural losses rooted in the disengagement of most African states, lacking any remedial solutions, a sector able to supply employment and significant potential revenues.