Cinema
Cabascabo
Oumarou Ganda · 1969
Synopsis
Cabascabo, a soldier back from the Indochina war, returns to Niger with his savings and his war stories. In Niamey, he lives the good life, surrounded by friends and women who admire him as long as he pays, and in a short time squanders the money from his years of service. When he has nothing left, his friends slip away, and the idle former soldier must look for his place in a country that was not expecting him.
Context
The film grew out of a screenplay competition organised in 1968 by the film club of the Franco-Nigerien cultural centre in Niamey, where its author had been trained. Shot in sixteen millimetre and in black and white, it draws on his own experience of Indochina and answers the Jean Rouch film in which he had played his own role. Edited in Paris in the spring of 1968, amid the strikes, it was shown in the capital before going to festivals. A French newspaper headlined that a film in the Zarma language was appearing at Cannes for the first time. A digital restoration was made in 2019.
Who it is for
A short film, in French and Zarma with subtitles. The story follows an experience lived by the director.
Prizes and reception
Selected for the Cannes International Critics' Week in 1969, it won the special jury prize at the Moscow festival the same year and two prizes at Malaga.