PIÈCES D’IDENTITÉS
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Director:
Mweze Ngangura
Screenplay: Mweze Ngangura
Cast: Gérard Essomba, Herbert Flack, Jean-Louis Daulne, Dominique
Mesa, David Steegen.
Awards: 5 awards at the 1999 Ouagadougou Panafrican Film and TV Festival
in Burkina Faso, including the Grand Prize and the award for Best Actress
(Mesa).
Running time: 94'
Year of production: 1998
Rating: Not rated
Gauge: 35mm (color)
Distributor: California Newsreel
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“A
multi-cultural romp which has already proved an audience favorite....
Rich in multi-level meaning; flawlessly navigating provocative points
about racism, tradition, class struggle, cultural identity and corruption
without sacrificing entertainment value.” Variety. |
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Mani
Kongo (Essomba), the venerable king of the Bakongo (in Congo), sets
out alone on a quest for his long-lost daughter, Mwana (Mesa), whom
he sent to Belgium to study medicine many years before. As soon as
he arrives he finds his identity challenged by the attitudes of the
Westerners, both black and white, with whom he comes into conflict.
At the airport the custom officials want to charge him duty on his
royal “fetishes,” mistaking them for objets d’art.
In Brussels he is robbed of his money and papers, then evicted from
a church-run hostel. Circumstances finally force him to pawn his royal
regalia, symbolically stripping him of his identity. In this modern
fairy tale, the uprooted king is an Everyman forced to endure the
crime, corruption, decadence and racism of European life in order
to save his daughter from a potentially soul-destroying rootlessness.
In the end, everything works out for the best. Kongo returns home
with his daughter and his new-found friend (and love-interest of Mwana)
the mulatto, Chaka-Jo (Daulne). Though the finale may seem far-fetched,
it suits the fairy-tale nature of the film. The possibility of African
renewal achieved through the return of idealistic, European-educated
Africans to their homelands, where their true identities will be restored,
is an uplifting theme embodied by a funny and colorful film.
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| PHOTO Coutesy
of California Newsreel |
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