If one central theme runs through contemporary African cinema, it is the conflict between tradition and modernity. Educated, Westernised film-makers in the Mahgreb (Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia) and South Africa have generally been hostile to tradition, whether directed against Islamic fundamentalism instanced by Bab el-Oued City, directed by the Algerian Merzak Allouache, or at apartheid, as in the recent screen version of Alan Paton's celebrated Cry, the Beloved Country.
West African directors, however, have generally been far more ambivalent and less judgemental, perhaps a point best illustrated by Keit. Helmed by Dany Kouyaté from Burkina Faso, the film, which unspooled at last year's Ouagadougou Festival, the celebrated showcase for African filmmakers, stresses the need to maintain traditions in modern life.
Cannes' In Competition player, Po di sangui, the third film by Flora Gomes from Guinea Bissau, takes a somewhat similar stance on the traditions issue. "Po di sangui is a parable," says its director, "which questions change in African societies that are confronted by, on the one hand, the need to modernise and, on the other, by the inevitable consequences of a clean break with the past."
As in the best tradition of most parables, Po di sangui is a sparse tale, loaded with pregnant metaphors, where physical travel becomes a symbol of both social upheaval and moral change. "All the myths and traditions of old Africa are there, but you can understand them very easily," says associate producer Pedro Martins, keen to allay cinemagoers' fears that the film will prove indigestible.
The story starts in the village of Amanha Lundju, where tradition dictates that every time a child is born a tree is planted. Infant and tree grow together, and the tree is seen as possessing the growing child's soul.
The storyline follows Dou the Nomad, who returns from the savanna to discover his village ravaged by drought. His twin brother Hami has died and, following custom, Dou takes as his own Hami's widow and daughter, leaving Saly, his now estranged fiancée, to go mad from grief and fall in love with the sun.
Everything in African society has a cause, so the villagers are obsessed with discovering the reasons for the curse which has apparently befallen them in the form of drought and illness. The arrival of forest surveyors in the village to destroy the surviving trees prompts Calcalado, the witchdoctor, to order a general exodus towards the desert. The journey becomes a process of initiation, which draws to a close when the villagers, enlightened by experience, return to the village once more after the birth of a child. They have returned to fight for their survival and their old way of life, planting a new tree to signal their renewed commitment to tradition.
"Modernisation becomes a brilliant mirage, as radiant as the sun," Gomes waxes lyrically. "Their return is the fruit of disillusionment with a sterile search for a future in other places The film is a parable about the need for a balanced evolution in the relationship between man and earth, about the construction of a future based in the deep roots of a culture that still has a lot to contribute to a more human world."
Shot in 12 weeks, with a dialogue using Portuguese patois, Po di sangui is a poetic piece. "Given the absence of any industry or technology, natural resources are an essential source of riches in Guinea Bissau," says Gomes. "The relationship between Man and Nature goes beyond simple economic considerations. Whatever current religious beliefs [there are], our identity is based in myths and animistic traditions."
Like most movies from the fragile film industries of West Africa (Guinea Bissau is reckoned in one estimate to be the world's third poorest country), Po di Sangui's financing was completed with European investment. The actual credits - Les Matins Film, MK2 Productions (France), Arco Iris (Guinea Bissau), Cinetelefilms (Tunisia), SP Filmes (Portugal), with the assistance of the European Commission and the ACCT (Agency for Cultural and Technical Co-operation) and the participation of the French Ministry of Culture and French-Speaking Countries, the French Ministry for Co-operation/SACEM, the Guinea Bissau Government, the UICN (International Union for the Protection of Nature), IPACA (Portuguese Institute of Film and Audiovisual Art), ICP (Portuguese Co-operation Institute), CECI (Canadian Centre for Studies and International Co-operation), ASDI (Swedish Agency for International Development), the Hubert Bals Foundation, Canal + Horizons, and Trigon Films - demonstrate more than anything else the uphill struggle facing West African filmmakers.
This is an unfortunate situation given the fact that Gomez's debut feature Mortu Nega (1987) was widely admired, and his second film Les yeux bleus de Yonta played in Un Certain Regard at Cannes four years ago. As Martins says, "I hope that Po di Sangui opens minds to the importance of our co-operation with countries in Africa."
John Hopewell
Ex prod: Michel Mauros, Maria-Cecilia Fonseca
Dir: Flora Gomes
Scr: Flora Gomes, Anita Fernández
Ph: Vincenzo Marano
Mus: Pablo Cueco
Ed: Christiane Lack
Cast: Edna Denise das Neves Evora, Ramiro Naka, Adama Kouyaté, Jorge Quintino Biagué, Dulceneia Bidjanque, Bia Gomes
Running time: 90mins
