The first images coming to my mind in connection with the horrors of war are not a city in ruins or a mass grave, but the eyes of the children who survived. These seven young actresses already know the price of life, maybe the only positive aspect of a war. This is what we tried to convey here. Pierre-Alain Meier
Rice People” is a delicate, low-key, beautifully lensed study of a rural Cambodian family that has the beauty but emotional distance of a moving tableau. First feature by Paris-based Cambodian director Rithy Panh should raise ripples on the fest circuit and be appreciated by enthusiasts of east Asian cinema, but its theatrical harvest looks iffy. VARIETY
Merzak Allouache’s film “Bab el Oued City” presents an ominous, intensely atmospheric portrait of a working-class neighborhood in Algiers. It is a place where poverty, Islamic fundamentalism and the materialist mass culture beamed into people’s homes via satellite fuel an incendiary mix of conflicting attitudes. NEW YORK TIMES
Awarded at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival under the category “Un Certain Regard”.
This wicked tale, told with wit and irony has the ingredients of a crowed-pleaser.
VILLAGE VOICE
Hyenas is the most exhilarating mix of exotica, comedy and tragedy since 1959’s Black Orpheus. NEW YORK POST, Larry Worth
In Hyenas, Djibril Diop Mambety’s pungent adaptation of the „Visit“, the setting has been moved from Europe to Africa. Although the film, keeps the outlines of the Dürrenmatt play intact, the change of locale lends the tale a new political dimension.
NEW YORK TIMES, Stephen Holden
After obtaining their Secondary School diplomas, some young people plan to continue their education but are not sure which area to choose.
Djibril Diop Mambéty followed and filmed the shooting of “Yaaba”, Idrissa Ouédraogo’s (Burkina Faso, 1989) second feature film. A documentary full of humorous anecdotes regarding the dangers of shooting in Burkina Faso.
A well-bred young woman who prizes the virtue of fidelity remains faithful to the doctor who deflowers her, even after he marries her invalid sister.
Ten year old Bila and his cousin Nopoko live happily in their Sahelian village. Bila is taken with an elderly woman, Sana, whom he calls «Yaaba», although the rest of the village treats her as a witch. One day, Nopoko falls ill with tetanus; her condition worsens. Nobody in the village, not even the healer, can help her – except, perhaps, Sana.
Set in SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil, a documentary about transsexuals who talk about theirs lives and problems. IMDB
