Faat Kine is a film that brings us face to face with the reality of the politically, economically, and morally corrupt social fabric of the society that is depicted in this film. Ousmane Sembene’s story is about the changing roles of women in Senegalese society, and in this sense, Faat Kine could be considered as a significant film of what “feminism” could mean in 21st-century Africa.
In the opening scenes we see many women carrying water buckets and babies strapped to their backs as they cross paved avenues with the noises and fumes of old-fashioned public transportation and the impressive sights of European luxury cars. Then we see a surprising sight: a dusty open space where starving cattle munch on anything they can find. New villas with manicured lawns shelter the upper class, the middlemen and managers of capitalist interests who have turned their backs on the crumbling poor houses where their neighbors dwell. While begging and corruption become accepted ways of life, AIDS and pollution reap millions. The towering buildings and monuments are shown to emphasize the globalized ideas that are arrogantly towering above the decaying city. These are clearly indications of the city’s deteriorating post-colonial economic, social, and cultural policies.
Faat Kine is not a fairy tale; it is though entertaining and funny at times. From the first scene to its happy ending, the cruel details that document and animate Kine’s private and public life in a society pummeled by forces of the past and those of modernity. Faat Kine could be a film about women in a world of men or about a post-colonial time when many hesitate at the turning point of change and conservatism. The utopia imagined in Faat Kine is a future about hope and the struggle against hopelessness. Faat Kine is in fact a milestone in propelling the actuality in Africa toward an ideal of freedom earned and enjoyed by both women ans men.
In the opening scenes we see many women carrying water buckets and babies strapped to their backs as they cross paved avenues with the noises and fumes of old-fashioned public transportation and the impressive sights of European luxury cars. Then we see a surprising sight: a dusty open space where starving cattle munch on anything they can find. New villas with manicured lawns shelter the upper class, the middlemen and managers of capitalist interests who have turned their backs on the crumbling poor houses where their neighbors dwell. While begging and corruption become accepted ways of life, AIDS and pollution reap millions. The towering buildings and monuments are shown to emphasize the globalized ideas that are arrogantly towering above the decaying city. These are clearly indications of the city’s deteriorating post-colonial economic, social, and cultural policies.
Faat Kine is not a fairy tale; it is though entertaining and funny at times. From the first scene to its happy ending, the cruel details that document and animate Kine’s private and public life in a society pummeled by forces of the past and those of modernity. Faat Kine could be a film about women in a world of men or about a post-colonial time when many hesitate at the turning point of change and conservatism. The utopia imagined in Faat Kine is a future about hope and the struggle against hopelessness. Faat Kine is in fact a milestone in propelling the actuality in Africa toward an ideal of freedom earned and enjoyed by both women ans men.
2 comments:
I really like what you said about this juxtaposition of the poor/rich, old/new, pre-colonial/post-colonial. Sembene is a master at showing the way these oppositions are a constant in everyday Senegal life. As you say, public transportation alongside expensive European cars, fancy houses next to crumbling shacks, etc … It’s like the post-colonial era of newness – new houses, new wealth, new cars, new ideas -- rose up around the pre-colonial poverty, with a blind eye. The result, is this strange mix of polar opposite ways of life that inter-mingle.
I saw this first-hand in Cozumel, Mexico many years ago. I stayed in a local B&B in the heart of the town and when I was walking around the neighborhood I saw mansions with servants and guarded gates sitting right next to dilapidated shacks. I remember thinking I didn’t know how the rich people who lived in the mansions could stand to see their neighbors struggle like that and not feel compelled to help them, but it was like they were in their own world and didn’t see anything beyond their own gates.
We don’t really have that particular phenomenon in the U.S. Rich and poor are definitely segregated by neighborhoods. They each have their own space and might go through an entire lifetime not really knowing how the other side lives. I guess the real question is: Is this better than the Senegal lifestyle where the poverty and old ways of life are directly in front of you? Is it better for the rich not to know the struggles of the poor? I don’t know. But, I think the people of Senegal, seeing this constant opposition, couldn’t help but internalize it to a certain extent, and maybe this knowledge would then unconsciously motivate them toward change in later years.
Ah, it is neat that you bring up the first shot of the film, Arleen. I do see it as a juxtaposition of poor/rich and pre/post colonial Senegal. Interestingly, the characters never comment on that obvious juxtaposition, a reaction that Xala does not shy from.
I do wonder if the film is just about women in the world of men. Djib and Abby’s struggle with their father wrinkles that view of the film. It could be a struggle between pre and post colonial Senegalese society, or maybe it should be seen for what is appears to be: a struggle between children and parents in identifying what is right and what is wrong, which is more of a universal struggle.
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