Fespaco: "Eyimofé" by Nigerian Chuko Esiri, a cinema that respects time

Eyimofé, the film directed by Nigerian Chuko Esiri, in feature film competition, was screened on this second day of Fespaco, October 18, 2021. © Laura-Angela Bagnetto / RFI

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Second day, this Monday, October 18 for Fespaco, the pan-African film festival.

In the feature film competition, the most prestigious, seventeen films are selected.

RFI attended the screening of Eyimofé, a film directed by Nigerian Chuko Esiri.

Advertising

Read more

With our special correspondent in Ouagadougou,

Guillaume Thibault

Praise for slowness is rare in today's cinema.

This is the bias in this diptych which tells the daily life of two inhabitants of Lagos who dream of Europe: Spain for Mofe, played by Jude Akuwudike, electrician, in his fifties, marked by life and who loses, following a domestic accident, his wife and two children.

Rosa, in her forties, waitress, lives with her little sister.

She rubs shoulders with the world of money, during the day, and returns to her dismal apartment at night.

These two lives advance in parallel.

Mofe who is not even supported by his family in the painful ordeal he is going through, ends up losing his job.

Rosa tries to get her head out of the water, but she is always overtaken by the lack of money.

No judgment

Director Chuko Esiri seeks to show this reality without adding to it.

The action is slow, so are the plans.

The fact of turning in 16 millimeters reinforces this desire to respect time.

Mofe ends up forgetting Spain, Rosa by marrying her landlord.

Eyimofe (“C'est mon desire”, in French) does not pass judgment, does not seek to attack a system.

But it is a powerful film, a key to questioning Africa today.

►

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• Burkina Faso

• Movie theater

• Culture Africa

• Fespaco