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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > History > War > Africa > Camp de Thiaroye (1987/New Yorker Films DVD)

Camp de Thiaroye (1987/New Yorker Films DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: D     Film: B

 

 

Camp de Thiaroye (1987), by Ousmane Sembene, is considered a classic of African cinema.  It is now available on DVD, presented by New Yorker Video.  The film tells the story of an African infantry battalion returning home to Senegal, having fought to free Europe from Fascism.  Specifically, the Infantrymen were among those who liberated the concentration camp Buchenwald.  The returning soldiers are haunted by what they experienced—they carry the Nazi ideology back to Senegal like an infectious virus.

 

Once home, they are put in a “transition” camp, Camp de Thiaroye, where they wait for their wages to be paid, before they are allowed to go back to their villages.  They find themselves behind barbed wire—the colonialists don’t trust them.  When their French commanders refuse to pay them their fair wages, tensions flare up.  How can a man return from war a hero, only to be a slave in his own country?

 

This and other questions are examined by writer-director Ousmane Sembene.  Sembene (1923 - 2007) is considered a master storyteller.  A former World War Two soldier from Senegal, Sembene illegally immigrated to Marseilles, where he found works in the harbor docks.  He began writing a novel, “The Black Docker”, published in 1956.  It received sufficient acclaim—and royalties—to solidify his career as a writer, and later on, as a director.  Sembene studied film in Moscow, and was politically active throughout his life.  He was never afraid to infuse his storytelling with a heartfelt political yearning for a better tomorrow, for African independence.  Among his best-known films are Black Girl (1966), Xala (1975, both reviewed elsewhere on this site), Ceddo (1977) and Camp de Thiaroye. 

 

Despite his achievements, Sembene’s work—and much of African cinema—receives little attention in the West.  During a recent press junket in New York, Nigerian actor Hakeem Kae-Kazim (Hotel Rwanda, Lost, 24) spoke about an inherent problem the African film industry faces.  A majority of films are filtered through a white perspective:  From Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa (1985) to Kevin Macdonald’s “Last King of Scotland” (2006), the dramatic arc is often borrowed from Joseph Conrad’s seminal novel of colonialism, “Heart of Darkness” (1899).  A white man comes to Africa, experiences it through the eyes of a foreigner and is ultimately engulfed by its “darkness”.

 

“We see this in politics as well,” Kae-Kazim explains. “The current leaders of Africa were educated in Europe, and it shows in the disdain they show their countrymen.”  To break this disdain, a homegrown film industry is vital.  Nigeria is the third largest producers of films in the world, next to India and the United States.  From Mogadishu to Cape Town, the films of “Nollywood” are everywhere.  “It’s a wonderful way of Africans telling their own stories in their own way, and with their own way of storytelling,” explains Kae-Kazim. 

 

This is especially evident in the films of Ousmane Sembene, a precursor to the modern African film industry.  Camp de Thiaroye is a flawed, but interesting film. While the pacing is slow, and the performances somewhat exaggerated, the underlying power cannot be denied.  It is a film that does not shy away from taboos, and the DVD release is a welcome addition to one’s library. Regrettably, the production values and film transfer—presented in a 16:9 1.78 X 1 anamorphically enhanced aspect ratio—leave much to be desired.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is dull, and the colors washed-out and muted.  Also, there are no extras to speak of, save for a twenty-minute interview with actor Danny Glover, who provides some much-needed background and insight into Sembene’s work.

 

At 152 minutes, Camp de Thiaroye feels a bit long, but it is nonetheless an engaging film that challenges our perception about race and violence.

 

 

-   Emanuel Bergmann


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