Yeelen | |
---|---|
Directed by | Souleymane Cissé |
Written by | Souleymane Cissé |
Produced by | Souleymane Cissé |
Starring |
|
Cinematography |
|
Music by | |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 105 min. |
Country | Mali / Burkina Faso / France / West Germany |
Languages | Bambara, Fula |
Yeelen (Bambara for "brightness"/"light") is a 1987 Malian film written, directed and produced by Souleymane Cissé. It is filmed in the Bambara and Fula languages, and is based on a legend told by the Bambara people. Though the era is undefined, it is presumably set in the 13th century in the Mali Empire and is a heroic quest narrative featuring magic and precognition.[1]
Cissé has stated in an interview for Cahiers du Cinéma that it was "in part made in opposition to European ethnographic films” and that he “wanted to make a response to an external perception, a perception by white technicians and academics, an alien perception."[2]
It stars Issiaka Kane as Nianankoro, a young African man who possesses magical powers. Niamanto Sanogo plays Niankoro's father, who is tracking his son through the Bambara, Fulani and Dogon lands of West Africa using a magical wooden post to guide him.[3]