Yeelen is a distinctly African film, in that it is set well before European incursion on the continent—indeed, in a time and place where Europeans might not even exist. A dramatization of a tale told by the Bambara people of modern-day Mali, Yeelen mixes folklore, natural settings, and religious practice to create an experience—for most North American viewers at least—that is at once as familiar as Arthurian legend and as mystifying as an alien culture. That’s not to say the movie is alienating. Writer-director Souleyman Cisse outlines his young hero’s journey cleanly, punctuating it with lyrical asides that allow us to take in all sorts of natural textures (towers of fire, dry cracked earth, rugged rock walls, and a splashing spring, to name just a few). The main character, Nianankoro (Issiaka Kane), is pursued by his “terror” of a father (Niamanto Sanogo), a corrupt sorcerer who wants to murder him out of paranoia and jealousy. Traveling across the land, he encounters an intially adversarial king (Balla Moussa Keita), finds a wife (Aoua Sangare), and hones his own magic in anticipation of the eventual showdown with his father. The themes of familial strife are universally resonant even if you know nothing of the Komo belief system that guides the proceedings. Meanwhile, Cisse’s DIY, pre-CGI methods of depicting the magical acts—from running the film backwards on occasion to having actors stand motionless when they’ve been immobilized—gives the movie an enchanting, out-of-time quality. Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes in 1987—the first prize ever awarded to an African film at the festival.
(9/7/2023)
