Cinema
Wasan Kara
Inoussa Ousseini · 1980
Synopsis
Every year, the inhabitants of a village stage an episode from local history. That year, they perform a parody of the Nigerian president's visit to Niger.
Context
The film runs twenty minutes and was shot in colour sixteen-millimetre, in the documentary manner that Jean Rouch had made at home in Niger. It records an annual practice: the village chooses an episode from its history, casts it among its inhabitants and replays it before itself. The satire that year fell on an official visit from the neighbouring country, which makes the film the record of an authorised satire rather than the satire itself. It was shown at a documentary film festival in 1996, sixteen years after it was shot.
Who it is for
Twenty minutes. It helps to know that neighbouring Nigeria, by its size and its economy, weighs on Nigerien life, which gives the re-enacted scene its bite.
Prizes and reception
Included in the reference catalogues of African cinema, it is among the short films that led its author to be regarded as a pioneer of African documentary.