INTERVIEW WITH FLORA GOMES AND SERGE ZEITOUN

By Olivier Barlet

Africultures September 9, 2002

Flora Gomes (director of Po di Sangui, which had been part of the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival) had hoped to complete his film Nah Fala for Cannes, but that wasn’t possible. We met him along with his producer, to get some details about his eagerly-awaited musical comedy.

This was a project that was very dear to your heart. What is its main point?

It’s true that it’s been nearly six years that I’ve been struggling to make this film. Music plays a very important role in Africa—the music, the musicians, but also the songs. Here, a young African girl receives a scholarship to study in Europe, but she cannot sing because of a specific belief that if a woman sings she will die. She meets a young musician who leads her to sing--song becomes the freedom to say what one thinks.

How were you able to do such a demanding film at a time when Guinea-Bissau has known so many problems these last few years?

It was all about the relationships: it was a daring film, with big risks, and this adventure motivated everyone! The team was amazing and getting Fatou Ndiaye (who played Fatou the Girl from Mali on French television) for the principal part was the deciding factor. She learned Creole, in no time at all, for the betterment of the film; I had been planning to dub her, but when I saw that she had gotten on so well with it, I kept her voice! The support of Manu Dibango [the great French-African jazz musician originally from Cameroon] was very important also: he offered us a new Manu for this film, reinventing himself marvelously.

A woman who dies as a result of singing: is that something one can find in Africa?

Salif Keïta [the superstar albino vocalist from Mali, whose family lineage is that of the ancient nobility of Mali] tells us that a Keïta must not sing! But otherwise, no, that was my attempt at a poetic way of expressing a conflict. This girl wants to live her life in this century and to say what she wants to about her country, her family, about humanity in general. That’s what drew me to make this film. Tradition is inspirational, but you cannot be its prisoner.

We find many films at the current Cannes Film Festival that represent the determination of people from the Third World to exist in the world.

Globalization is inevitable, but it must bring us something. I never tell you the name of the country where this film is taking place, because I don’t want to get caught up in the particular. European technique inspires us and gives us tools. Remember that the first African films, those of Ousmane Sembène, for whom I have a great deal of admiration, are really quite recent. We must continue despite our weaknesses. The world is like that, suffering and happiness.

So, a woman leaves for another place . . .

My films always have someone who travels. In Mortu Nega, a woman walks. The Blue Eyes of Yonta opens with the end of a journey. Po di Sangui is marked by an exodus. Na Falah is also the story of a displacement.

Serge Zeitun: The songs say an enormous amount in the film, but Flora’s aim was to say these things lightly, in the style of the musical comedy. Yes, there is commentary on the relationships between North and South [i.e., “First World” and “Third World,”], tradition and modernity, but done lightly.

How did the idea of a musical comedy come to you?

When we shot the last sequence of Po di Sangui in Tunisia, the shot of a mirage where people are singing, I had a strong desire to make a musical comedy. I had been thinking of orienting it around a young man, but people advised me to do it with a young woman. It seems that I do a better job with women in my films!

Serge Zeitoun: The metaphor of this prohibition against singing seems to me much stronger when it is borne by a woman—it’s women who are once again prohibited from speaking.

Was the project difficult to pull off?

The producers pulled really hard to make the film that we have today. It could have been done more quickly, but less well.

Serge Zeitoun: The big problem with a film that is not in French is that it cuts you off from television. Even with recent reversals, television remains the big guarantor of funding for film. We had to pull the deal together without television. Nevertheless, in light of the usual low budget for African films, having about 14.5 million francs (or 2.2 million Euros), we did pretty well, and the film demanded it. We had to transport a full crew to Cape Verde, along with shooting in Paris and music to worry about—it all added up to a lot of money.

Why was it shot in Cape Verde?

Cape Verde is an island, and that posed some big logistical problems, with difficult air connections. And we had to move lots of people from Guinea-Bissau. It was impossible to shoot it in my country: Guinea-Bissau was in ruins from the recent conflict, and security for the shoot could not be guaranteed . But it’s also because I do feel myself to be Cape Verdean [the two countries were one prior to 1980]: we have the same Creole language, and I feel myself to be completely at home there.

What problems did you run into that prevented the film from appearing at Cannes?

There were problems at the end of post-production, during the sound mixing: we couldn’t make up the time lost.

Interview conducted by Olivier Barlet

Cannes

May 2002

http://africultures.com/index.asp?menu=revue_affiche_article&no=2332&rech=1

Translated by Michael Dembrow

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