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All of Us Want To Forget Something So We Tell Stories. It Makes It Easier

The document discusses an exhibition centered around the film "Au bord de la route de Wakaliga" by Louis-Cyprien Rials. The film is shot with a low budget in a natural environment without professional actors. It is a remake of the 1950 Japanese film "Rashomon" set in modern Uganda. The film explores themes of violence in Ugandan society and the subjectivity of human memory through different character perspectives, as in the original film. Despite its low budget, the film won the SAP prize in 2017. The director worked with Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana's studio that encourages local artists and gives opportunities to young talents in Uganda.

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Rita Alferova
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34 views

All of Us Want To Forget Something So We Tell Stories. It Makes It Easier

The document discusses an exhibition centered around the film "Au bord de la route de Wakaliga" by Louis-Cyprien Rials. The film is shot with a low budget in a natural environment without professional actors. It is a remake of the 1950 Japanese film "Rashomon" set in modern Uganda. The film explores themes of violence in Ugandan society and the subjectivity of human memory through different character perspectives, as in the original film. Despite its low budget, the film won the SAP prize in 2017. The director worked with Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana's studio that encourages local artists and gives opportunities to young talents in Uganda.

Uploaded by

Rita Alferova
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Louis-Cyprien Rials – Au bord de la route de Wakaliga

All of us want to forget something so we tell stories. It makes it easier.

As you enter the dark exposition room your attention is immediately captured by the

spots of light: shinny guns and bright posters. The brutal imagery is emphasized by

the dazzling colors: red, yellow and green. Along with the posters that were painted

by hand, one can see guns hanging on the wall, which are there to emphasizes the

violence of Ugandan reality reflected in the exposition. To crown it all, a visitor is

intimidated by the darkness of the room. Like a moth would fly to a flame, we are

moving forward fascinated by a flash of light coming from the screen behind the

wall.

It shows us a film that seems to be a parody of Japanese films of 50s. The movie is

produced by Louis-Cyprien Rials and Ramon Film Production - the studio, that was

founded in 2005 by Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana. This studio encouraged local

young talents such as numerous musicians to express themselves in art industry and

gave new working places along with opportunities.

Having grown up during the brutal regime of Idi Amin, Isaac Nabawna’s artistic goal

became to explore violence and its manifestations through films. The exposition is

centered around this very film which turns out to be a remake of a 1950 Japanese

thriller Rashomon. His main inspiration was Quentin Tarantino and his style of

creating films: making a compilation out old classical movies and applying their plots

to his reality. Inspired by his methods, Louis-Cyprien Rials transfers the story that

took place in Japan in the 10th century to modern Uganda. The problem of the
selectiveness of human memory and plurality of the points of view is universal and

does not depend on time or place. The director adapts the Japanese story to his reality

and changes some details, such as the character of a witch that was present in the

original film. Louis-Cyprien Rials tries to show the Ugandan world through the

European perspective, even though this perspective is not always correct. Thus, the

witch in Rials' film wears a chicken…..-an element which is not typical to African

reality, but which reflects European view as to what African culture is like.

Due to a low budget, Louis-Cyprien Rials shoots his film in the natural environment,

without any decoration or professional actors. However, despite the fact that he did

not have any financial support, the director managed to win the SAP prize 2017. The

two creators of the film made up a perfect team. According to Louis-Cyprien Rials'

own words his precise approach to the filmmaking merged well with Isaac Godfrey

Geoffrey Nabwana' easy and spontaneous attitude. This difference of the cultures

resulted in a rich cultural diversity that manifests itself in the film.

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