Screening of All-Time Malian and African Classic „Finye“ (German subtitles) with Master Director Souleymane Cissé in Attendance, Thursday, 7 November 2013 at 8pm, Hackesche Höfe Cinema, Berlin

15. October 2013

Events, Films, Colonialism & Decolonisation

On Thursday, 7 November 2013 at 8 pm AfricAvenir in cooperation with the French Film Festival Tübingen invites you to the Hackesche Höfe Cinema for the screening of the classic and FESPACO winner of 1983 “Finye” (The Wind) with Malian master director Souleymane Cissé in attendance. “Finye” is a social satire with a Romeo and Juliette flavor dealing with the generation conflict in postcolonial West Africa. The main character is the hash smoking daughter of a province governor who falls in love with a fellow student who descents from a traditional royal family. Both families are concerned and suspicious of their relationship as well as their growing dedication to the student protest movement against the corrupt government. As the incidents escalate, the governor orders his own daughter’s arrest and her lover’s deportation. Instead of weakening them the arrest and the accompanying physical suffering and humiliation lead to the two becoming even closer to strengthen each other in order to resist. nWith its mix of politics, love story and social criticism, „Finye“ takes a critical look at „traditional“ as well as „ modern“ values and suggests that there can be a third, alternative way which can be freed from this dichotomy and thus, offers new possibilities. The fact that the protests against the military dictatorship in Mali during the 1990s actually lead to a change of regime makes this farsighted movie even more interesting and reminds us to constantly question political developments, particularly in the present state of the country.

„In the life of a person there are from time to time moments during which one has to pause in order to realize what has been done and what still needs to be done. FINYE asks this twofold question.“ Souleymane Cissé

„Finye is one of the finest and most dense movies ever produced on the African continent.” Samuel Lelievre

Following the screening a discussion with director Souleymane Cissé as well as a small reception in the foyer will take place.

This screening is funded by Aktion Afrika (Africa Initiative of the German Foreign Office) and is organized in cooperation with the French Film Festival Tübingen, Africiné, Allacine, dem Club der Freunde von RFI, Berlin Poche, |+| rendez-vous-cine.de, Sunugaal, Exberliner, multicult.fm, Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland (ISD).nIndication: In the framework of the 30th birthday of the French Film Days in Tübingen, the festival will showcase the complete body of work of filmmaker Souleymane Cissé (30 October bis 6 November 2013), which is a premiere in Germany! See: http://www.filmtage-tuebingen.de/nPress reviews
„No one is caricatured, and the film develops its conflicts with splendid directness, shifting easily between realism and fantasy.” Timeout London

"In this beautifully photographed film director Souleymane Cisse presents a daring and revealing picture of the conflicts tearing apart many people in countries all too easily lumped together as ‘The Third World’." San Francisco Chronicle

„The film also marks a shift taking place between ‘social realism’ – recognisable from its European roots – and a more ‘metaphysical’ cinema, alert to the ideas and images of African culture“The Case for Global Film

„A spirited, sympathetic portrait of a society in transition, the film defines the director’s central philosophical premise: that the ethnographic approach or seemingly modern view of African culture is no more valid the the traditional metaphysical view. Myth and symbolism maintain an important role in Cissé’s films, where the frontier between realism and metaphor constantly shift. Here, he employs these multiple perspectives to present an intriguing study of a culture that is both exotic and unexpectedly familiar.” Mantia Diawara, Harvard Film Archive

„‘Finye‘ is a key film in Cissé’s work, even though published before ‚Yeleen‘, the movie which initially made the Malian director broadly known.“ Samuel Lelievre

„Like Yeleen (1987), Finye retains, besides aesthetic aspects, a unique political significance that is linked to the context in which the film was produced – the Mali of Moussa Touré and his „dictatorship of the generals“ -, something that one won’t always find in the „culturalistic and symbolic“ film making that emerged in West Africa.” Samuel Lelievre

„Souleymane Cissé‘s third long movie offers him the opportunity to react to gross disparities and social injustice which are both linked to time and space.” Charles Ayetan, Africiné

Awards
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Main Award at Journées de Catharge (JCC) in Carthage 1983
Main Award at FESPACO in Ouagadougou 1983
Nominated in the category “Un certain Regard” at he Cannes Film Festival 1982

nAbout the director
Souleymane Cissé was born 1940 in Bamako, Mali and is since his early teenage years an enthusiastic cinema lover. Cissé grows up in exile in Dakar and returns only when his country Mali becomes independent. It is his assistant job and work on a documentary about Patrice Lumumba that sparks in him the desire to make movies himself. He receives a scholarship that helps him to study film in Moscow where he works part-time as a photographer and projectionists.nBack in Mali he starts to work for the Information Ministry as camera man and to make his own movies. His movie “Den Muso” about a young, deaf girl who is raped and disowned from her family is banned by the Malian government and Cissé thrown into jail. “Baara”, the first movie entirely produced in Mali is screened at the Berlinale Forum in 1979 – just after its triumph at the Pan-African Film Festival in Ouagadougou (FESPACO). Cissé manages to relive this success with the movie “Finye” in 1983 and is so far the only director who has been able to win the famous FESPACO award twice. In 1987 his movie “Yeleen – the light” is awarded the Jury’s special award at the Cannes Film Festival. Souleymane Cissé is the chair person of the Union des Créateurs et Entrepreneurs du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de l’Afrique de l’ouest (UCECAO) and is one of the most famaous and respected African directors. His last movie „Min Ye“ was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009.

Filmography (selection)
Short films:
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1965: L’homme et ses idoles
1968: L’aspirant
1968: Source d’inspiration

nFeature films:
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2009 Minye (Tell me who you are)
1994 Waati (Time)
1984 Yeelen (The Light)
1983 Finye (The Wind)
1978 Baara (Work)
1978: Chanteurs traditionnels des Iles Seychelles
1975 Den Muso (The Young Girl)
1972 Cinq jours d’une vie (Five Days in a Life)

nFinye (original Bambara with German subtitles)
Souleymane Cissé, feature film, Mali, 1982, 100 min.

Thursday, 7 November 2013
8 pm
Admission: 7,50€

Tickets and further information
030/ 283 4603

Hackesche Höfe Kino
Rosenthalerstr. 40/41
10187 Berlin
S Hackescher Markt
U Weinmeisterstraße

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