African urban tragedy

Created with minimal means by a collective in Abijan, Ivory Coast, Lonesome Solo's film tells a schematically tragic story concerning a family divided by poverty. The dialogue is the local urban street slang of Nouchi, with a lot of French. It was all shot in eleven days with a lot of improvisation in the ghetto (or "djassa") of Wassakara where it all takes place. In the story, the mother took Tony Abdoul Karim Konate) and Ange (Adélaïde Ouattara) out of school so their brother Mike (Mammadou Diamandé) could go to school, and Mike has become a relative success, serving as a police officer, while Tony, also known as Dabagaou. Mike has gotten Ange a job working at a hairdressing salon, but she doesn't like it. Recently she has begun working secretly at night as a prostitute. As for Tony, he has been scraping by as a walking cigarette salesman on the high life pathway called Princess Street. With a jaunty step, he takes a naive pleasure in entering the gangsterish world. But he gets involved in card games in the street and loses his money and his cigarettes. Later in a public place where he hears Ange accused of theft by what turns out to be one of her johns, Tony gets into a knife fight. When Mike is called in later to investigate, he makes a horrible discovery.

The action is periodically interrupted by a narrator (Mohammad Bamba) who recounts events before they are enacted on screed, giving the narrative the feel of traditional village storytelling. There are also some lively moments of urban African popular music.

Burn It Up is direct, vibrant filmmaking. The acting is sincere and the story is intense but both are quite lacking in nuance. It is fortunate that this film could be made under what are obviously difficult conditions, and it may breathe life into the film industry of a country where it is said cinemas have been closed and turned into churches. Cinematography is unsubtle but decent. The title, Le djassa a pris feu, reminded me a little of Jean-François Richet's 1997 sophomore feature's title, Ma 6-T va crack-er ("My Project's Going to Blow Up").

Burn It Up Djassa/Le djassa a pris feu, 70 mins., was screened for this review as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center-MoMA series New Directors/New Films, March 2013. It is also going to be included in the New York African Film Festival, also presented by the FSLC, April 3-9, 2013.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.