David R. Walker

Posts Tagged ‘Mamadou Diallo’

My Friend

Director: Mohamed Zran

Cast: Fethi Akkari, Mamadou Diallo

Running Time: 85 minutes

Country of Origin: Tunisia

Festival: Durban International Film Festival

Language: Arabic and French with English Subtitles.

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

PLEASE NOTE THERE WAS LIMITED PUBLICITY AVAILABLE FOR THIS FILM: POSTERS & STOCK IMAGES.

Tunisian director Mohamed Zran’s 85 minute film My Friend closed the 47^th Durban International Film Festival https://ccadiff.ukzn.ac.za/ and follows the nocturnal and nefarious wonderings of a Senegalese immigrant to Tunisia Idrissa who decides to assist Hassan, a down and out old man who has been badly injured and is sleeping in the doorway of someone’s home in Tunis.

My Friend is shot entirely in one take with no editing, which makes the film engrossing but also difficult to watch as the audience follows the adventures and horrors of Idrissa as he valiantly attempts to get Hassan to a hospital in Tunis which is unfortunately on the outskirts of town perched on a hill.

As Idrissa and Hassan ward off racist attacks and attempted muggings by discontented youths in a nocturnal Tunis, My Friend follows the story of the two men as they attempt to get to safety. No good deed goes unpunished as Idrissa soon finds that he is robbed and his immigration papers which allow him to stay in Tunisia are stolen.

Tunisia is also a stopping off point for migrants to get from central Africa to Europe as it is a stone’s throw away from the flashy resorts of Italy and France in the Mediterranean.

Broke, injured and hungry, Idrissa and Hassan press on towards their destination, a hospital which should be a place for healing and medical assistance but turns out to hold a fate far worse for Idrissa.

My Friend is a fascinating and daunting exploration of an unlikely friendship at the tipping point of it collapsing as Hassan, a Tunisian citizen will find all the help he requires while Idrissa, a Senegalese outcast will be treated as a hostile pariah.

Director Mohamed Zran’s film My Friend is recommended as an arthouse film and unfortunately does lack commercial appeal but stands up as a scathing judgement of Tunisian society who views foreigners as non-citizens, a trend which seems to be replicated the world over.

Tackling issues of homelessness, poverty, immigration and the lack of human kindness, My Friend gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and was a fitting film to end off the Durban International Film Festival. If viewers catch it on a streaming site or elsewhere be sure to watch it.

Banel & Adama

Director: Ramata-Toulaye Sy

Cast: Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo, Binta Racine, Moussa Sow

Running time: 87 minutes

Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Festival: Durban International Film Festival (DIFF)

Language: Sengalese with English Subtitles

After having its world premiere at the 76^th Festival de Cannes, Sengalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy ‘s thought provoking film Banel and Adama was chosen as the closing film of the 44^th Durban International Film Festival in July 2023.

Banel and Adama won the Bright Horizon award at the Melbourne International Film Festival and is an incisive look at woman Adama who is supposedly trapped in a patriarchal and remote village in Northern Senegal.

Adama’s future is mapped out for her by the village elders as she is to wed the younger brother of her late husband as per tradition.  However, Banel played by Mamadou Diallo is not happy with her projected future and struggles to adapt to an already mapped out life. As a young woman she struggles to take heed of advice by the village elders even when the village itself is ravaged by drought and lack of rain.

Banel is to inherit the title as village elder and along with all the men, he has to tend to the dwindling livestock in ever worsening conditions with inadequate agricultural means and a meagre population which is teetering on the edge of hunger.

Unlike Western cinema which always focuses on the interplay between hero and villain, director Rama-Toulaye Sy paints a vivid cinematic portrait of a community struggling to survive against nature and of a woman fighting to establish her own self-identity in an environment which is prescribed by traditional Muslim values and a superstition of all things individual.

Banel and Adama is a fascinatingly authentic African film, a lens which is rare for cinema going audiences from a country which has virtually no visibility on the world stage.

Interwoven with some beautifully stark images, Banel and Adama is a symbolic tale of how an individual woman fights against the expectations of her community and a man who has to bow down to local pressure to take up the position of village leader as inherited according to dictated custom.

Debut director Rama-Toulaye Sy imbues her first film with all the traits of traditional African cinema, minimal sets and a stark production design, while skilfully keeping her narrative community driven as her two main characters battle to accept the fates that have been chosen for them by the village elders.