288. Les Maitres Fous (1955)

Directed by Jean Rouch

Synopsis

Documentary on the rites of the Hakua who are possessed by Colonial characters in their yearly ritual. Oh and drink the gushing blood of a dead dog.

Review

In this tame age of cinema you could get away with pretty shocking imagery if you were doing a documentary. And Jean Rouch does not shy away from it, short from showing the actually execution of the dog everything else is pretty strange and to some audiences quite shocking, if you took your average audience member to see this in the mid 50s I can't even imagine what he'd think.

But the film does not live only from the car-crash TV quality of watching people foaming at the mouth and killing a dog, just to be normal, well-adjusted members of society the next day. The most important thing in the film is said by Rouch's voice over in the last second of the film, raising the question of whether this ritual is a way to let off the steam in order to live under oppression, a kind of mental health treatment by doing some debased actions.

What Rouch does not touch but is apparent to the informed viewer is the idea that this is also a mockery of Colonial powers in the ritual, the Hakua assume their forms in order to bring those authoritarian figures down to their level. And yes, at first it might seem like Rouch is portraying African barbarism, but if you look under the surface his message and the message of the Hakua was considerably more subversive.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

The Hauka movement, according to some anthropologists was a form of resistance that began in Niger, but spread to other parts of Africa. According to some anthropologists, this pageant, though historic, was largely done to mock their authority by stealing their powers. Hauka members were not trying to emulate Europeans, but were trying to extract their life force – something “entirely African”.

This stance has been heavily criticized by anthropologist James G. Ferguson who finds this imitation not about importing colonialism into indigenous culture, but more a way to gain rights and status in the colonial society. The adoption of European customs was not so much a form of resistance, but to be “respected by the Europeans.”

The whole thing is on youtube, part 1: