Clermont 2020: “Da Yie”, by Anthony Nti, “a foreigner in Ghana”

Text by: Siegfried Forster

In "Da Yie", the images are constantly moving, like him during the interview! For Anthony Nti, the camera is "like a very curious child". In international competition at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, the 28-year-old Belgian director, born in Ghana, tells the strange story of a foreigner in his native country.

Publicity

RFI : Da Yie starts with a scene that is both very cruel and very beautiful : two hens tied up trying to fly up to the sky. Cruelty and beauty, what are the two sources of your film ?

Absolutely. I always see aesthetics and beauty in brutality, anger or in pain. Ghana is a very visual place for me. I loved mixing brutality with aesthetics to make it beautiful, happy and colorful.

What is the central story of Da Yie for you ?

The theme of the film deals with the phenomenon of group pressure. This is the story of a foreigner in Ghana. He is not the sharpest man in the world and he has to recruit two children to deliver them to his gang for a dangerous mission. But when he gets to know the girl and the boy, he has feelings and is overcome with doubt. The film talks about the pressure from the group and how we react to it.

Your camera is moving a lot. Is it your style as a filmmaker ?

Yes, I myself am very alive, I like to move. For this story and this place, it was important to me to consider the camera as a third person who is there and seeks to understand how it works. To become this third person, it was very crucial that the camera moved. This explains the movements when necessary, but at other times, there is no movement.

Your film is also very punctuated by images and scenes. Where does this rhythm come from ?

It's the African rhythm [laughs]. When I was in Ghana, there were rhythms everywhere: when they prepare food, cackling hens, market noises ... I wanted to integrate these rhythms into my film. The editing also plays on the rhythm. For me, it was essential to shoot the film in this way.

In English, "shooting" is the same word for shooting a film and for shooting with a weapon. For you, is the camera a weapon ?

In a way, it is a weapon. But it is not threatening like a gun. For me, the camera is like a very curious child. Children always want to discover, watch, touch things. For me, this is a camera. In a scene, sometimes the camera wants to approach, sometimes it wants to stay behind. Like a person. For that, I would not say that the camera is like a firearm, because, when someone points a weapon at you, it is something else… I prefer when the camera is not too present, but just like a curious child. That's it: for me, the camera is just a very curious child.

You were born in Ghana before leaving for Belgium at the age of ten. In your films, Kwaku , Boi, and now also in Da Yie , children play the main roles. Is it related to your childhood ?

There is always a personal connection. In Da Yie , I put more personal things than in previous films. But all my films start from a personal point of view, from something I have done or experienced. Then I create a story around it. I feel like a child myself. And it's also very interesting to work with children. My next film will be about 18 year olds.

► Da Yie (Belgium / Ghana), short film by Anthony Nti, 20'34, screened in official competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, from January 31 to February 8.

► Also read: The dreams of South African filmmaker Karabo Lediga at the Festival de Clermont

► Read also: Clermont 2020: “Troublemaker”, the Biafra war and silence

► Also read: Fabien Dao: "Bablinga, the fear of returning to Burkina Faso"

► Read also: Opening of the Clermont-Ferrand Festival, world capital of short films

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Download the app

• Cinema
• Ghana
• Belgium
• Culture
• Culture Africa
• France

On the same subject

Disappearance

Kirk Douglas, death of the last Hollywood giant

"Our Lady of the Nile", Atiq Rahimi tells the roots of the genocide in Rwanda

Clermont 2020: "Troublemaker", the war of Biafra and silence