Absa's film And So Angels Die was made with low-budget video technology. (If you read Mermin's essay on Senegalese filmmaking, you will understand that Senegalese filmmakers are often under the thumb of European control, because films are expensive to produce and highly taxed in Senegal.) Video technology has allowed some Senegalese filmmakers like Absa to reduce production costs and rely less on European funding, which means everything, as even in a post-colonial Senegal the severe economic reality often recreates colonial exploitation in various ways, including within the film industry.
In both Sembene's Black Girl and Absa's And So Angels Die, the main character is a diasporic figure, caught between cultures and estranged by this existence. Made six years after Senegale independence from France, Sembene directly shows the impact of how racism continues to affect Senegalese persons. Absa, years later, focuses less on outright European racism, and moreover states that And So Angels Die is his effort to address "the question of
how to approach the problem of the father in a society where he occupies
an untouchable place. African man has not looked his father in the
eyes." The complexity of cultural critique is layered, because the main character in the film, Mory, has been living in France.
How do these films challenge your "underinformed" view of African cinema? What you do notice about their similarities and differences? And ultimately what are their messages? Are they made for Senegalese viewers? European viewers? How might they complicate your understanding of post or neo-colonialism? And what do you notice as far as how these two films comment on women's experience and patriarchy, respectively?
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