Mali
Abdoulaye Ascofaré
One of two films from Mali selected at this year's Cannes (Adama
Adrabo's Taafe fauga plays in Directors' Fortnight), Faraw! is a
family drama set against the immense backdrop of the Sahara
desert, and was a hit at February's Pan-African festival in
Ouagadougou.
Described by director and screenwriter Abdoulaye Ascofaré as a homage to his mother, who herself had a hard life, the film follows the fortunes of a mother struggling to look after her handicapped husband and three difficult children.
Faraw! shows the impact of visiting Europeans on the African family, and aims for a true sense of realism, rather than resorting to melodrama (although the film does include a dream sequence).
The film's cinematographer, Yorgos Arvanitis, is better known as the regular collaborator of Greek director Theo Angelopoulos. Here, he uses his skill to recreate the immensity of the desert, and to suggest its vast, silent, cruelty.
Ascofaré is full of praise for his lead actress, Aminata Ousmane, in her role as the mother of the sands. But perhaps the real star of the film is the Sahara itself, in the way it affects the life of all those who live with it.
Ascofaré has sought to replicate in his film the way the desert's calm but persistent rhythm dominates the characters' lives and controls their destiny.
The director is apprehensive about his film's reception by non-African audiences, reflecting a widely held concern among African filmmakers that the particular qualities of African cinema are not properly understood or appreciated. But the welcome presence of Faraw! and the other sub-Saharan African films at Cannes this year should help rectify that situation. Nick Thomas
Prod co: CNPC et Films de la Dune Rose
Dir/Scr: Abdoulaye Ascofaré
Ph: Yorgos Arvanitis
Sound: Pierre Gauthier
Ed: Mohamed Meziane, Abdoulaye Ascofaré
Music: Harouna Barry, Ibrahim Dicko
Cast: Aminata Ousmane, Balla Moussa Keiat, Safiatou Mahamane, Oumar and Hamel MBarek
Running time: 90mins
Int sales: CNPC (Mali)
