Yeelen nos fala de luz, esse nome significa justamente isso, “a luz”. Mas o filme está carregado de sombras, de magia e de morte. Os sacrifícios são uma constante, assim como perpassa toda a história uma certa luta entre o bem e o mal. Para muitos, também, assistir a Yeelen pode ser um sacrifício, e eu não os culpo. Este é um dos filmes mais distantes de tudo o que a maioria está acostumada a assistir (eu me incluo nisso). Esse tom um tanto documental da produção, que tem direção e roteiro de Souleymane Cissé, é um dos pontos fortes do filme. Afinal, quantas oportunidades você teve de assistir a um filme de Mali? Que não só fosse ambientado naquele…

1st Souleymane Cissé

One of the most remarkable films I've ever seen, one that stubbornly thumbs its nose at the European concepts of cinema to produce something gloriously individualistic. Cissé's film draws on Malian folk legend and the memory of the four century long Malian Empire in his construction of a faintly Oedipal narrative where a son must kill his father, a dangerous sorcerer who worries that said son will be the death of him. Cissé's approach to performance is radically difference to what we in the West understand; the dialogue is less conversation and more a series of chants and declarations, framed immaculately and edited with a slow, heavy rhythm that emphasises the power individual speaker possesses in that…

This really put me in another world but thankfully guided me with an opening write-up with some drawn imagery to give you some talisman guidance through this Mali 13th century past with a story that is ripe for interest cause right out of the gate you have a dad trying to track down his son to kill him and a son not knowing why but only guided by his aged mother trying to protect him. Now I am not going to get into the weeds to much on this cause honestly I don't totally have the colloquial knowledge to unpack all this material but I can say that there is some seriously solid imagery that holds weight and a story…

More, please. This is a beautifully shot myth on cinema, the creation story for a people that are going to have to deal with a lot of unfairness, but ultimately persevere-it encompasses pointless tragedy and things going wrong, but also a sense that the universe will guide you through, that there are allies in nature, and that those who exploit the world around them for their own egos (and kill albinos) can't escape their fate, while those who accept their fate will create a lasting legacy. It also does that thing I love in Fantasy where the plot gets rolling because of one of those ironic prophecies that's sparked by the villain(?)'s own insecurities over the prophecy, and for what…