Cinema
Kawilasi
Blaise Kilizou Abalo · 1995
Synopsis
Adjo Zongo, known as Tanti Adjo, an orphan since adolescence, runs a ready-to-wear boutique and lives comfortably, but withdrawn into herself. She meets by chance Sabi Kazan, a young university lecturer, whom she seduces; their meetings follow one another until their engagement. One Sunday, her guard hears gunshots, rushes in and finds her beside Sabi's body, a weapon in her hand: Tanti Adjo is charged with wilful homicide, and the court-appointed lawyer investigates.
Context
Shot in 1992, the film was released only in 1995; it runs an hour and a half and was first titled Sabi, la mort et moi. Its author wrote and produced it himself, with Daniel Lawson, Gustave Sorgho and Victoire Walla, cinematography by Nara Keo Kosal and editing by Marie-Jeanne Kanyala. In the year of its release, at the Ouagadougou festival, it received the special prize for sustainable human development. The Institut français du Togo paid tribute to him in 2021.
Who it is for
A drama between a love story and a criminal investigation, worth seeing for its place in the history of Togolese cinema.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first Togolese fiction feature film, and awarded in 1995 by Burkina Faso's major Pan-African festival.