Afrique, mon Afrique...

This middle-length film was shot in the same year as Le Cri du coeur, Ouédraogo's first film shot outside of Burkina Faso in France. This film is another challenge to film duration and to the way of talking about an issue - even a hard issue like that of AIDS. This film was commissioned and produced by Arte. Ouédraogo uses a light touch and humor. He makes comedy co-exist with tragedy. There is a scene where we watch a demonstration on how to use prophylactics, and there is the scene of the death of the protagonist. Ouédraogo makes his cinema continue down the streets of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Eugène has moved here dreaming to become a singer. AIDS becomes an important presence, but it is not overbearing. Here Ouédraogo does not demonstrate ever. Rather, he uses a fluid manner to render aspects of the real and of existence that he has captured, in his fiction, as they are being lived out. This film is a dance of colors and music. It is no accident that the role of Eugène was given to the singer Ismaël Lô who played his character in a new context.