Response to "And So Angels Die"

The films “Black Girl” and “And so Angels Die” have a unique viewpoint and cinema style that I am not majorly familiar with. I’m use to high quality and expensive productions. In America we have 3D movies and high end equipment for our movies. African films do not meet these “American expectations”. They clearly do not have access to such fancy features and technology. They rely on a realistic documentary approach. It is hard to wrap my head around the fact that this is a norm for many African movies. I personally would not pay to watch a movie of that quality here in America but Africans pay to see these films regularly.

I personally did not notice too many similarities between the two movies. The only main ones that I noticed were some form of suicide in both and the confliction between two different societies and their expectations. In the film “Black Girl” the main character committed suicide while in “And So Angels Die” it was a lover of the main character who spoke of committing suicide and I’m assuming went through with it. Both films showed women giving up due to too many expectations. In “Black Girl” it was not planned and just happened, while in the second film his lover said she was contemplating it. As for the conflictions of multiple societies, “Black Girl” brings up treatment issues of blacks versus whites. In her home society she was treated much more equal and respected. In the white society she ended up in, she was treated as less and was never given freedoms she expected to have. In “And so Angels Die” He was running from the traditional land he grew up in and where his family still was. He was in France attempting to make his family structure work even though he did not make much money. He ended up losing his wife and kids but he still did not want to be back with his old culture. His dad was a believer in having multiple wives and arranged marriages. Mory was not interested in a new wife or his father pushing him to be with a friend’s daughter. Both films made the cultures seem very reliant on one another. The mother asked for money in ‘Black Girl” and the father asked for it in “And So Angels Die.” I think that it put too much pressure on the main characters.

I’m not positive on what their messages are but I think they were both created as a wakeup call to various societies.  These African films focus on various types on treatment towards people living in their everyday societies. I think they are trying to break away from what people assume is their traditions. Mory is an example of a less traditional African man and he attempts to break from his father’s expectations. It shows that they are just as modern and want the same things as anyone else would. In “Black Girl” she tries to get away from her traditional roles at home by finding herself a job and exploring other places. The film also portrays how hard it can be for them to break away from their norms. The white people in the films are harsh towards them or lack understanding of African culture. I think these films are created to give other countries knowledge on African ways and lifestyle.

Women are not portrayed well in these films depicting African culture. The women are seen as an item or a purchase to add to the man’s lifestyle. In “And So Angels Die” Mory’s father believes in having multiple wives and thinks he has offered them some great lifestyle just people he houses them and feeds them. He does not really care about the women individually; he acts like it’s a job in itself to make time for them. Women are put to work with cooking and cleaning, and caring for kids. They are restricted from most things it seems in Africa. Women seem worthless and it’s sad to see how men treat them or use them. The women get no say in their marriage and fathers basically sell their daughters. I cannot say that it is always that way but the films make it seem like treating women poorly is the norm in many African societies.