PLEASE
NOTE THIS FILM WILL BE SHOWN AT THE STEAM MILL!!!!
Abundant
nudity and fetishes are normally the province of adult cinema, but
'Kirikou and the Sorceress' is very much for children. Based on a traditional
West African myth, Michel Ocelot's spellbinding animated film, telling
the story of diminutive Kirikou's determination to save his village
from the malevolence of Karaba the sorceress, was the deserved joint
winner (with 'Chicken Run') of the 2002 British Animation Awards for
best European feature.
At the film's beginning, Kirikou delivers himself from his mother's womb, emerging
already able to walk and talk and look after himself. Informed by his mother
that the sorceress Karaba has caused the local spring to dry up and has eaten
most of the village's menfolk, Kirikou races off - still within minutes of his
birth - to save his last surviving uncle from Karaba and to see her (and her
army of fetishes) for himself. The spoon-sized hero rescues the village children
from Karaba several times and solves the mystery of the Cursed Spring, before
slipping past Karaba's all-seeing Lookout Fetish to find out from his grandfather,
the Wise Man of the Mountains, just why Karaba is so wicked.
The distinctive Africanness of its origin, setting, appearance and sound gives
'Kirikou and the Sorceress' the kind of striking freshness which Disney lost
decades ago. The ochres and browns of Kirikou's village, the fiery red of the
flame trees, the vibrant green of the jungle and the barren grey of Karaba's
tent all bring a richly textured sense of place to the film. The characters are
all unmistakably African, and sport as impressive an array of hairstyles as is
ever likely to be seen in a cartoon. Karaba's totemic fetishes, with their strange
shapes and robot-like movements, are eerie rather than frightening. The excellent
soundtrack - the first by renowned Sengalese musician Youssou N'Dour - is played
using only traditional African instruments.
Like Kirikou himself, the film races along at an extraordinary pace, bursting
with ingenious ideas, and posing all manner of questions. Whereas the adults
around him are all trapped in their own prejudices and superstitions, the newborn
Kirikou brings a child's fresh perspective to the problems faced by the village,
and his intelligence and inquisitiveness mark him out as the natural inheritor
of his grandfather's (and indeed his mother's) wisdom. Kirikou's story illustrates
(without ever preaching) the value of innocence and intellectual curiosity, the
unimportance of size, and the need at times to empathise with, or even love,
one's enemy. It also demonstrates vividly that the best way to resolve a conflict
is not to keep on fighting to the end, but to investigate and address its underlying
causes, however thorny.
So it seems that 'Kirikou and the Sorceress' is as much an adults' as a children's
film after all. Kirikou's little village is also the world village, and its disruption
and eventual reintegration contains valuable lessons for us all. A beautifully
realised, pacy, thoughtful classic.
Anton Bitel Movie Gazzette |
