KIRIKOU ET LA SORCIÈRE
KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS |
 |
Director: Michel Ocelot
Screenplay: Michel Ocelot
Cast: Voices of Theo Sebeko (Kirikou), Antoinette Kellermann (Karaba),
Kombisile Sangweni (The Mother).
Awards: Best Animated Feature, Chicago Int’l Children’s
Film Festival (1999); Best Animated Feature Award, Int’l Festival
of Animated Film, Annecy, France (1999).
Running time: 70'
Year of production: 1998
Rating: Not rated
Gauge: 35mm (color)
Distributor: Art Mattan
|
|
“Kirikou
offers a glimpse of an African culture that is, with the aid of the
diminutive protagonist, refreshingly self-reliant. And the film’s
depiction of its subjects is staunchly independent of overt Western
influence, right down to the - scandalous! - bare-bosomed women and
naked brown children populating the screen.” Nicole Keeter,
Time Out New York. |
|
|
 |
|
Set
entirely in Africa, Kirikou recounts the story of a precocious newborn
boy who, discovering that an evil sorceress has his village in thrall,
sets out to liberate his people. Armed only with inquisitiveness,
intelligence and resolve, but aided by the deceptiveness of his small
size, he battles against not only the vengeance of the evil sorceress,
but the superstition and fear of the villagers. Based on West African
folk tales, and animated with deliberately rudimentary perspective,
lush colors and complex patterns, this intelligent and charming morality
tale illustrates the value - the necessity, in fact - of thinking
for oneself, of questioning the status quo, of challenging oppressive
authority. Universal in its themes, the notable absence of any European
characters puts the political focus not on what has been inflicted
upon Africa from without, but on how some of Africa's present ills
may have emerged from within. The film was a tremendous box-office
success in France, thanks partly to the score by Senegalese superstar
Youssou N’Dour, but also to the narrative and stylistic authenticity
realized by Ocelot, a French citizen who grew up in Guinea.
|
|
|
| PHOTO Courtesy
of Art Mattan |
|
|
|
