Create A South Park Character

«ABC Africa» d'Abbas Kiarostami (2001)

"ABC Africa" is unique in that it does not claim to objective truth, unlike many documentary carefully annotated a soothing voice-overs. As so often in Abbas Kiarostami's gesture, the ethics of that which is brought to film is questioned, weighed ostentiblement put forward to avoid any misunderstanding and to provide food for thought. So it's certainly a documentary, but from the perspective of a foreigner visiting for a limited time African soil, we discover a country with a people, women and children survivors of civil wars and the AIDS epidemic in Uganda, and the people who help them. The discomfort we may feel at times when being filmed in intimate moments, ordinary or difficult is that of Kiarostami and his team is one that meets the entire documentary can only hope that beyond its status of "voyeur" by winning the trust of those he recorded on film. Because useless to deny it, and that is what Kiarostami has the courage to show, it really interferes in people who are forced to accept, often under the influence de la surprise, la présence envahissante d'une caméra. Une fois de plus Kiarostami n'hésite pas à déjouer le processus filmique, à dévoiler les ressorts d'une telle entreprise et à littéralement afficher l'effet de la caméra sur le sujet filmé, son interaction avec lui. Le plus bel exemple en sont ces séquences dans la rue où les enfants, intrigués, viennent s'agglutiner face à la caméra de nos reporters, sautillant, grimaçant, riant devant cet objet qui les regarde. C'est d'ailleurs amusant car on a l'impression que c'est notre propre présence qui fait cet effet, on se sent véritablement à la place des caméramans et Kiarostami nous implique ainsi complètement in his project: he questions his eyes, he asked just as ours! Kiarostami's films make us think about cinema, his documentaries are so well about the "kind" to which they are connected (besides with the Iranian filmmaker border documentary / fiction is that any more porous). Once again I can only applaud the intelligence and honesty of the approach, especially that "ABC Africa" is a documentary of great beauty and remarkable strength. [2 / 4]