Abbas Kiarostami: ABC Africa (2001)
ABC Africa: A stands for Abstinence, B stands for Be faithful, C stands for use Condom only as a last resort. With such a state-driven propaganda no wonder that Uganda faces an impressive number of AIDS cases. And this does not mean only the number of deaths: there are the kids whose parents died from the disease. Then add the kids whose parents died in the civil war. Taking care of these orphans is the mission assumed by UWESCO (Uganda Women Effort to Save Orphans): women willing to adopt these orphans and to give them the chance of a new family, even if this family has many other kids to feed.
Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami was asked to take part in a project of UN's IFAD (International Fund for Economic Development): to make a documentary on the plight of Uganda's orphans and the work of UWESCO to rescue them.
And so Kiarostami arrived there with a minimal crew, with two handheld digital video cameras, and with the intent of making quickly a rough version as a first step in creating the documentary.
What resulted was so original that they decided to keep this first version as the definitive production.
I read the reviews to this movie: some of them reproach to Kiarostami that he missed to depict the real situation, that his view was superficial. I think these reviews missed actually the point. Kiarostami has never pretended to explain the universe he was filming. He gave only, in all honesty, a strict account on what he witnessed, nothing more. It's his truth, nothing but his truth, anything more would be hypocrisy.
It is the style from all his movies: letting each new situation encountered to develop on its own. There is something new here, truly revolutionary: using the tiny video camera gives total freedom to anything, spontaneity becomes fully unrestricted. Spontaneity and interactivity: the kids are playing with the camera, inventing games and dances, like all kids from any place on Earth.
And so ABC Africa marks one of the most important moments in the history of cinematography: the handheld video camera throws away any conventions and liberates personages and places from the tyranny of the scenario, and ultimately from the tyranny of the director.
The image recovers its meaning when it faces darkness ... the rainy morning after the painful seven minutes in the dark is a gift to those who have patiently tolerated the dark night until the morning (faraz1729). This scene announces Five!
(I'm in the Mood for Kiarostami)
Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami was asked to take part in a project of UN's IFAD (International Fund for Economic Development): to make a documentary on the plight of Uganda's orphans and the work of UWESCO to rescue them.
And so Kiarostami arrived there with a minimal crew, with two handheld digital video cameras, and with the intent of making quickly a rough version as a first step in creating the documentary.
What resulted was so original that they decided to keep this first version as the definitive production.
I read the reviews to this movie: some of them reproach to Kiarostami that he missed to depict the real situation, that his view was superficial. I think these reviews missed actually the point. Kiarostami has never pretended to explain the universe he was filming. He gave only, in all honesty, a strict account on what he witnessed, nothing more. It's his truth, nothing but his truth, anything more would be hypocrisy.
It is the style from all his movies: letting each new situation encountered to develop on its own. There is something new here, truly revolutionary: using the tiny video camera gives total freedom to anything, spontaneity becomes fully unrestricted. Spontaneity and interactivity: the kids are playing with the camera, inventing games and dances, like all kids from any place on Earth.
And so ABC Africa marks one of the most important moments in the history of cinematography: the handheld video camera throws away any conventions and liberates personages and places from the tyranny of the scenario, and ultimately from the tyranny of the director.
The image recovers its meaning when it faces darkness ... the rainy morning after the painful seven minutes in the dark is a gift to those who have patiently tolerated the dark night until the morning (faraz1729). This scene announces Five!
(I'm in the Mood for Kiarostami)
Labels: Iranian Film and Poetry, Kiarostami
posted by Pierre Radulescu at
10:20 AM
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