BLACK GIRL/BOROM SARRET- TWO FILMS
BY OUSMANE SEMBÈNE-
A DOUBLE REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
BLACK GIRL. 1966. DIRECTED BY
OUSMANE SEMBÈNE.
STARRING M'BISSINE THÉRÈSE
DIOP, ANNE-MARIE JELINEK, ROBERT FONTAINE AND MOMAR NAR SENE.
BOROM SARRET (AKA THE WAGONER).
1963. WRITTEN, DIRECTED AND NARRATED BY OUSMANE SEMBÈNE.
STARRING LY ABDOULAY.
This autumn (2015), the lovely
people at the British Film Institute will be releasing two films by
Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène
in a Dual Format Edition, which is film-talk for DVD and Blu-ray so
don't be alarmed by the high-tech terminology, haha. The films are
BLACK GIRL (1969) and his
directorial debut BOROM SARRET (1963),
which is considered by some to be the first film ever made in Africa
by a black African. This gives it a not inconsiderable significance, I think you'll agree.
I openly
confess to having been ignorant of the work of this particular
director until I was given the most welcome commission of reviewing
these two movies. Always glad of a chance to educate myself in the
area of world cinema, I immersed myself utterly (I'm nothing if not
thorough...!) and now I can tell you quite honestly that they're both
mini-masterpieces of the genre.
They made me
laugh, they made me cry, but they mostly made me think. About what?
About how lucky I am, mostly. Lucky to have food and clothing and
shelter and to pretty much always know where my next meal is coming
from. Lucky enough that I've never had to leave my family to go live
and work in a strange country because there isn't any work to be had
in my area.
Yet,
even though the two films did make
me exercise my 'little grey cells,' as
Poirot would say, they're not preachy or in any way hectoring.
They're just two beautiful, thought-provoking films and if you like
world cinema, you'll most likely love them. Let's have a quick
overview.
The
award-winning BLACK GIRL tells
the story of an attractive young Senegalese woman called Diouana. She goes to
work in France for a rich couple because there aren't enough jobs in
her hometown of Dakar to go round. The scene where the African women
are all gathered by the side of the road while a wealthy, stylishly-dressed white woman looks them over and decides which one
of them she wants to have working for her makes for uncomfortable viewing.
Right from the get-go, we know where Diouana stands in the pecking
order and so, clearly, does Diouana.
In France, things
don't work out for the young woman the way she hopes. Straightaway,
the rich couple start treating Diouana like a servant as well
as a childminder and she is
miserable, cooped up in their high-rise apartment constantly picking up after the family
and never being allowed out.
The
mistress of the house is a prize B**ch With A Capital B. She never misses a
chance to remind Diouana that she is 'just a servant.' She criticises
her choice of dress and footwear and even forbids Diouana to wear her
nice shoes while she's working. It's almost as if she wants
her servant to be walking around
the kitchen and bathroom barefoot. Eventually, Diouana decides she's
had enough and she packs her bag...
Diouana's
good shoes and especially her flat sandals are shown repeatedly and
the sight of them is unbearably sad. It's like we're being shown via symbolism the disparity between the carefree life she expected to
live in France and the actual drudgery of the life she's stuck with.
The African mask with which Diouana presents her undeserving
employers is another deeply moving symbol of the difference between
the two cultures.
BOROM SARRET or
THE WAGONER could also
have been called A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SENEGALESE
TAXI-DRIVER, although the
taxi-cab in question is actually a horse-and-cart. It's only twenty
minutes long and it tells the story of an impoverished cart-driver
and family man who barely manages to scrape a living from ferrying
people around the city of Dakar.
On
the day in question, the Wagoner experiences all human life as he
first drives a labouring woman to the maternity hospital with her
husband and then a bereaved father to the cemetery with his tiny baby
wrapped in a cloth bag in his arms. This latter scene is so sad. A
trip to the wealthier French side of town, however, does not end in
the desired prosperity for the cart-driver and the film's dénoument
sees our downtrodden pal return
to the family home with bad news for his wife...
Both
films are in black-and-white, with an option to watch BLACK
GIRL in colour. There are a load
of special features too, including a sixty-minute documentary
entitled: SEMBÈNE:
THE MAKING OF AFRICAN CINEMA. The whole package is definitely a purchase worth making. I'm genuinely glad I've been
introduced to the films of Ousmane Sembène.
I'm only sorry it took so long.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based
performance poet, novelist, film blogger, sex blogger and short
story writer. She has given more than 200 performances of her comedy
sex-and-relationship poems in different venues around Dublin,
including The Irish Writers' Centre, The International Bar, Toners'
Pub (Ireland's Most Literary Pub), the Ha'penny Inn, Le Dernier
Paradis at the Trinity Inn
and The Strokestown Poetry Festival.
Her
articles, short stories and poems have appeared in The Metro-Herald
newspaper, Ireland's Big Issues magazine, The Irish Daily Star, The
Irish Daily Sun and The Boyne Berries literary journal. In August
2014, she won the ONE LOVELY BLOG award for her (lovely!) horror film
review blog. She is addicted to buying books and has been known to
bring home rain-washed tomes she finds on the street and give them a
home. In 2003, she was invited to be a guest on Niall Boylan's 98FM
late-night radio talk show purely on the basis of having a 'sexy
voice.'
She is the proud possessor of a pair of unfeasibly large bosoms. They
have given her- and the people around her- infinite pleasure over the
years. She adores the horror genre in all its forms and will swap you
anything you like for Hammer Horror or JAWS memorabilia. She would
also be a great person to chat to about the differences between the
Director's Cut and the Theatrical Cut of The Wicker Man. You can
contact her at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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