Cinema
Aduefue, the Lords of the Street
Les Guérisseurs
Sidiki Bakaba · 1988
Synopsis
Kadjo returns home after two years spent in France and lets himself be drawn in by a gang of toughs, the Aduefue, the “lords of the street”, poor young men who came to crime in order to survive. With them, he plunges into the nightclubs, the girls and the easy money of a barely disguised capital, Kata-Kata, where wealth takes the place of law.
Context
The film, shot on 35 mm, was produced by Alain Depardieu and Afriki Projection, with the participation of the Ministry of Culture; Mohammed Soudani operated the camera and Serge Franklin wrote the music. Georges Benson plays Kadjo in it, alongside Pierre-Loup Rajot, Nayanka Bell, Alpha Blondy and Salif Keïta, and the director reserves for himself a comic role that drew notice. Interviewed by Africultures in 2000, he presented it as a film of today drawing on oral tradition, which had found its audience in West Africa.
Who it is for
A feature film of about an hour and a half, in French, that mixes urban drama and comedy.
Prizes and reception
Prize for best music at the Martinique francophone film festival in 1988, and the Voice of Hope prize at Fespaco in 1989.