Le President/ The President A Jean- Pierre Bekolo Film Fiction, 63 min, Cameroon/ Germany 2013
SYNOPSIS The disappearance of the President of Cameroon few days before the elections is a sign that the "specter" has taken over. Young people are becoming restless, old people are now telling, intellectuals are more and more debating, prisoners are planning, women feel like resisting Why are all the unemployed youth riding moto- taxis? Why are babies being stolen in public hospitals? Why no local hero still has no name on the street and no monument? Why is such a beautiful country in so much despair? Why has the old president never been to Soweto, nor to Harlem? These are the different faces of 42 years of the same regime revealed by "the specter", the story of succession, the story of independence, the story of revolution, the story of killing and death, the story of betrayal, the story of the people, the story of power in one specific country Cameroon. Because Africa is not a country, because the whole continent's story can't be the story of misery, poverty and diseases, the challenge is to get the media not just to tell the continent's story differently, but to tell a different story. One country at a time, looking at the contradictions and the hope through stories of the people and their imagination. THE PRESIDENT is an attempt to reinvent the genre not just by mixing fiction and reality but also by artistic treatment in form and imagery.
THE DIRECTOR My intent centers on the figure of the President, locating the film at an ending: the end of a man, the end of a long reign and the end of blame, failures and grievances. We had to find the right tone, poetry, humor and music that would narrate both the fragility of an all- mighty man acting as President as well as the danger inherent in the times to come. Although my first impulse was to find inspiration in Cameroun s particular situation, maintaining a certain abstraction and a more symbolic narrative treatment was necessary to allow each person to interpret his or her own film. The films we make when all is done shall not be those that we make when we the end of the story is as of yet unknown. How can reality aid us in drawing the contours of a fiction that in turn seeks the best way to nourish the transformation of that same reality?
BIOGRAPHY Jean- Pierre Bekolo first attracted notice at the age of 25 with Quartier Mozart, a winner at Cannes and Locarno and a BFI Award nominee. For the centenary of the cinema he made Aristotle s Plot. He directed Africa for the Future and was the creator of the video installation Une Africaine dans l Espace at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. He has taught film at Duke University. Filmography Quartier Mozart (1992) Aristotle s Plot (1996) Les Saignantes (2005) Une africaine dans l'espace (2009)
CREDITS DIRECTOR STORY PRODUCTION PRODUCERS ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS PRODUCTION MANAGER SCRIPT MUSIC COMPOSER CHIEF CAMERA OPERATOR BOOM OPERATOR ASSISTANT CAMERA COSTUME/MAKE UP Jean- Pierre Bekolo Simon Njami Kristina Konrad - weltfilm Jean- Pierre Bekolo sarl in association with CANAL+ AFRIQUE Kristina Konrad, weltfilm Berlin Boualem Azibi assisted by Ayad Djemma pour Canal+ Afrique Simon Njami assisted by Sylvie Pion, Paris Patrick Mbassegue, Montréal Patrick Mbassegue Sophie Beyala Kizito Ngoa Sylvie Cogneau Claude Mbayia Blaise Nnomo Zanga Christelle Magne Elise Biwele Adam Zanders Didier Mercier Dieudonné Mballa Mballa Bertrand Ngah Ruth Essangui Marie Hervé Ngambi Sandra Ndjapou Jeanne Ngo Ndap
EDITORS SOUND EDITOR MUSIC Annette Muff Jean- Pierre Bekolo Felix Rost «Midal» de Georges Telek Album Serious Tam 2000 «Le Chapeau du Chef» de Smarty Album Afrikan Kouleurs 2012 Lettre au Président de Valsero Album Politikement Instable 2008 WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF Bekolo & Partners Hotel Mont- Fébé Restaurant La Pirogue- Deïdo Auberge Millennium Nkomo (sous- Manguier) Deido Boy Palais des Congrès de Yaoundé Popoli Le Jour College Mongo Beti Village Ebogo Habitants du quartier Mini- ferme Femmes et bendskineurs marché Mbalmayo CCDOM Mbalmayo Mme Oyono Suzanne Alain & Florence Dzukam Master of the Game MOG
CAST GERARD ESSOMBA VALERY NDONGO VALSERO MAX ESSOUMA NYOM LEO LE ROI MASSAN A BIROKO HILDEGARDE NKODO JULES BERTIN NYANKAM PROSPERE MOTEGUE AIME SADOU CHARLES KOUASSEU ALAIN MEKONGO AMBASSA HAROUNA NJOYA CHANTAL MONGO MATTHIAS OWONA NGUINI VANESSA TCHATCHOU JEAN CLAUDE BISSOU LE VIEUX CROCODILE SIMON OBAMA GUY BEYEME
CONTACT Jean - Pierre Bekolo jeanpierrebekolo@gmail.com Tel: +23790664286 www.jeanpierrebekolo.com Produktion: weltfilm, Kristina Konrad konrad@weltfilm.com Tel: +49 30 42856409 www.weltfilm.com