AiM: Sacred Places

Sacred Places tells the story of a Burkina Faso neighbourhood through three characters: Bouba, the local video club owner; Jules Cesar, the Djembé maker; and Abbo, the 50 year-old former technician who quit his old life to become a philosopher and public writer.

Director Jean-Marie Teno derived his inspiration for Sacred Places after facing a recurring, persistent question throughout his career: “Who do you make your films for?”

After years of reluctance towards the inquiry, he finally decided it was time to find an answer, the result of which is a beautifully sensitive and personal film.

Teno has long been an attendee of FESPACO (Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou) and it was in Burkina Faso’s capital city that he stumbled across the modest suburb of St.Leon, wedged between a cathedral and a mosque (hence the name of the film). Here, Teno met the three subjects for the story and over a period of several months he let the camera roll, allowing Bouba, Jules and Abbo to express their views on the environment they live in.

Despite being driven to make Sacred Places by what he describes as an interrogation, Teno plays the calm observer in the film. He lets the three characters dictate the pace of conversation and it is only when narrating that he reveals his own perspective.

In a time when mainstream cinemas in Ouagadougou are struggling for business, Teno witnesses how the small community video clubs are still attracting regular interest. The complicated relationship between art, popular culture and business is a leading theme throughout and conveys the absurd nature of film distribution in Africa – Bouba explains how he cannot afford to buy African films to show in the video club because they are too expensive to make any money from.

Sacred Places raises several thought-provoking questions about the future of African cinema. After a screening of the Burkinabé film Yaaba in the St.Leon video club, Teno meets the director, Idrissa Ouedraogo, to discuss the growing gap between film production and the market. Both filmmakers agree that there should be a stronger bond between the industry and the audiences within the continent.

What really defines Sacred Places however, is the relaxed demeanour, pride and humour exhibited by the three subjects. Whilst the big questions are left unanswered, Bouba, Jules and Abbo continue to live to the best of their means, each creating an intangible level of happiness in the neighbourhood, be it through word, music or film. [Matthew Stanger]