Feature film
Dakan
Mohamed Camara · 1997
Synopsis
Manga and Sory, two young men in their twenties, are in love, and the film opens on their kisses in a parked car. When Manga confesses to his mother, a widow, that he loves a man, she refuses to believe it, and Sory's father is just as indignant. The two families forbid them to see each other again: Sory marries and has a child, while Manga's mother calls in a marabout to cure her son. Later, on a bus, Manga meets Oumou, a young Frenchwoman raised by a Black mother, and begins to see her.
Context
Played by Guinean actors, with the Frenchwoman Cécile Bois in the role of Oumou, the film was written and directed by Mohamed Camara, who plays Sory's father in it; it is spoken in French and Malinke, a language in which its title means “destiny”. Begun with French and Guinean funds, it lost Guinea's support when the government learned its subject; the filmmaker financed it out of his own pocket, with the backing of La Sept, and the shooting was disrupted by hostile demonstrations. Produced by René Féret, it features the music of the griot Sory Kandia Kouyaté.
Who it is for
For those interested in the first African films that dared to address homosexuality, and in Mandinka music.
Prizes and reception
Presented at the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 1997, it received the Grand Jury Prize at Outfest in Los Angeles in 1998.
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