Cinema
Le Nouveau Venu
Richard de Medeiros · 1976
Synopsis
Sénou, whom everyone calls the dean, is the longest-serving employee of a state body: a not very conscientious civil servant, he wields hidden power over almost all the staff. The day Agouénou is appointed director, the newcomer sets himself the goal of restoring order, discipline and professional conscience. The dean does not see it that way, and dramas and confrontations follow one another, up to the resort to sorcery.
Context
Shot in 16 mm and in colour, in Fon and in French, the film runs 1 h 27 and brings together Michel Djondo, Sébastien De Souza, Agnès Chichi and Sikirou Ogoujobi; Fela Kuti composed and performed the music. It is regarded as the second feature film of Benin. Its director, who had already subverted the codes of the ethnographic film in favour of the griots' storytelling, influenced younger filmmakers such as François Sourou Okioh, and the film is held by a French film library devoted to Africa.
Who it is for
For those who enjoy comedies of manners about power and want to discover a Beninese film carried by the music of Fela Kuti.
Prizes and reception
The country's second feature-length fiction film, it is held in the catalogue of the Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut français.