African Film Festival, March 22-25, Washington University in St. Louis

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Bent Keltoum

Daughter of Keltoum
Mehdi Charef, Algeria, 2001, 106min.
In Arabic with English subtitles

A young woman, Rallia, raised in Switzerland, travels to an isolated and barren Berber settlement located in the rocky Atlas Mountains of Algeria. Rallia's journey is one of multi-tiered discovery in terms of her relationship to her extended family, traditional Berber culture, and her desperate need to locate her biological mother. Through her eyes, the viewer is immersed in a world virtually untouched by contemporary society, one that still clings to tribal mores and strict religious codes of conduct. Mehdi Charef skillfully captures the windswept vistas of a faraway mountain range with wide camera angles that frame the harsh environs and the desperate daily search for water, the responsibility of the resilient women of the Berber tribe.

Kodak Award, 2002 Mons Festival of Love Films

SIGNIS Jury Award, 2003 Milan African Film Festival

Four feature films and four short films from six different African nations are part of the African Film Festival March 22-25. In addition, Ben Diogaye Beye, director of "A Child's Love Story/Un Amour d'Enfant," will be on hand for a discussion following his film's screening March 25.

The festival is free and open to the public, with each screening beginning at 7 p.m. in Brown Hall, Room 100. The event is sponsored on campus by the African Students Association, the College of Arts & Sciences, and African & African American Studies and Film and Media Studies, both in Arts & Sciences.

"In Africa, filmmaking can be viewed as an offshoot from its oral storytelling traditions," said Pier Marton, senior lecturer in Film and Media Studies. "Thus, even if the means of production or the pacing are at times very different from what we are used to, the great narrative skills often produce a most inspirational and entertaining cinema."

This is the second year the University has hosted the festival.

"When we launched the festival last year, we had no idea what to expect, but the reception was overwhelming," said Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo, Ph.D., an assistant dean in the College of Arts & Sciences and organizer of the festival.

Each evening offers a short film, followed by a feature.

• March 22: "My Lost Home/Ma Maison Perdue" (2001) by Kamal El-Mahouti, Morocco/France, French and Arabic with English subtitles. The filmmaker recounts his childhood memories in the wake of the destruction of a French housing project, exploring the complexly intertwined history of France and Morocco through the eyes of Moroccan immigrants living in France.

"Daughter of Keltoum" (2001), by Mehdi Charef, Algeria, Arabic with English subtitles. A young woman raised in Switzerland travels to an isolated and barren Berber settlement in Algeria's rocky Atlas Mountains in a desperate search for her biological mother.

• March 23, "Toi, Waguih" (2005), by Namir Abdel Messeeh, Egypt/France, French and Arabic with English subtitles. The story of a relationship between a screenwriter son and his father, told through the silence of the father's feelings about his political life.

"The Night of Truth/La Nuit de la Vérité" (2004); by Fanta Régina Nacro; Burkina Faso; Dioula, French and Moré with English subtitles. Mirroring the political strife and genocide in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa, preparations are made to end a decade of civil war in a fictitious country. The first feature film by a woman filmmaker from Burkina Faso, the film explores reconciliation and forgiveness.

• March 24: "Whole: A Trinity of Being" (2004), by Shelley Barry, South Africa. Three experimental shorts that deal with sexuality, visibility and voice from the perspective of a wheelchair user who turns the camera on herself to celebrate love and survival.

"U-Carmen Ekhayelitsha" (2005), by Mark Dornford-May, South Africa, Xhosa with English subtitles. George Bizet's 19th-century opera "Carmen" is re-imagined in a world of pool halls, bars and courtyards in a sprawling South African shantytown. Featuring the internationally acclaimed theater company Dimpho Di Kopane, this mesmerizing story of love, jealousy and revenge forces us to question society's standards of beauty.

• March 25: "Ousmane/Dewanati" (2006), by Dyana Gaye, Senegal/France, Wolof with English subtitles. Ousmane, a 7 year old who begs in the streets of Dakar, Senegal, decides to write a letter to Santa Claus.

"A Child's Love Story/Un Amour d'Enfant" (2004), by Ben Diogaye Beye, Senegal, Wolof and French with English subtitles. A touching coming-of-age story of innocent love between children in Senegal set against the background of a traditional class system and economic upheaval. A talk with the filmmaker follows.

For more information, call 935-7879 or e-mail wtoliver@artsci.wustl.edu.

African Film Festival, Washington University in St. Louis

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Official Web site: Washington University in St. Louis - African Film Festival

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Washington University in St. Louis

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The African Film Festival begins on Thursday evening in Brown Hall featuring "Daughter of Keltoum," a powerful Algerian film by Mehdi Charef. The traveling festival continues through the weekend, showing one short film followed by one feature each night beginning at 7 p.m. Admission is free, so the mini festival provides an excellent opportunity to see a range of African cinema and the distinct cultures they portray, all of which you might otherwise never discover.

"Keltoum" is Thursday's feature and it tells the story of Rallia, a 19-year-old woman raised in Switzerland, who returns to her birthplace of the barren North African Atlas Mountains to find her mother, a Berber named Keltoum. She arrives furious and stubborn, eager to understand why her mother abandoned her while simultaneously certain that no excuse could warrant such a reprehensible act.

Raised in Europe and ignorant of the harsh, oppressive environment and strict religious culture of Algeria, Rallia is immersed into culture shock in this land where finding water and food are a daily ordeal.

She locates her mother's home village, where she meets her gentle grandfather and crazy aunt. They explain that Keltoum works in the city at an expensive hotel, and that she will be back to visit for the weekend bringing a load of treats with her, including fresh bread. But Keltoum doesn't arrive and Rallia realizes her family is deluded with the hope of Keltoum's return.

Despite the hospitality and affection of her relatives and their neighbors, Rallia remains alienated. Solely focused on finding her mother, she departs for the city, but finds that her crazed aunt is following close behind, intensely curious about Rallia and concerned for her protection and safety.

For Rallia, the journey to the city becomes a jarring lesson in the culture of her native land, the building of a strong relationship with her aunt and a period of painful self-discovery.

The film is most effective in its use and depiction of environment. Filmed in Tunisia, the wide, prolonged shots of the desolate landscape pronounce the isolation and malevolence of the land. The audience soon realizes the arduous and suffering existence that the characters live, and like Rallia, begin to see how these conditions would drive a woman to abandon her child.

Charef, born in Algeria but a resident of France, also uses the film to portray oppressiveness in the strict gender relations in the Arab world. Women in the film are forbidden from eating in the same space as men and from speaking out of turn. They are tossed aside and publicly scorned so their husband can marry a younger woman, and they are brutally beaten for flaunting their sexuality by uncovering their heads (although I should note that no violent beatings occur onscreen, for those who would be disturbed by such images).

Another theme contained in the film is Western material obsession, portrayed in Rallia's aunt, who collects old magazines, boxes, soda cans and the like, and displays them reverently in an abandoned shrine.

These themes of feminism and material obsession are held entirely secondary to the core exploration of Rallia and her aunt. The film is an effective and emotional portrait of, and between, these two ladies. While it touches on deeper socio-political issues, it does not fully explore them.

The African Film Festival continues through Sunday with films from Burkina Faso, Senegal and South Africa. I have not seen the other films, but I intend to. I will briefly note that the feature on Saturday, "U-Carmen Ekhayelitsha" by Mark Dornford-May, was a popular feature at this past year's Saint Louis International Film Festival and that Sunday's feature, "A Child's Love Story" will include a post-film discussion with director Ben Diogaye Beye.

'Daughter Of Keltoum' leads off African Film Festival