The Forest

Le silence de la forêt

France, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon

2003

93 Min

Color

French

Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
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DIR Bassek Ba Kobhio, Didier Ouenangare

PROD Guillaume de Seille, Annie Izoungou, Charles Mensah, Abderrahmane Sissako

SCR Bassek Ba Kobhio, Marcel Beaulieu, Didier Ouenangare

CAST Eriq Ebouaney, Nadège Beausson-Diagne, Sonia Zembourou, Philippe Mory

Gonaba is an African intellectual fresh from Europe and driven by the extravagant belief that western curriculum and pedagogy are sufficient assets to bring positive change back home to the Central African Republic, a place he hardly knows having left decades ago. He vows to transform his country with the motto, “I can already see the day when I can triumphantly say: ‘Look what I did for this country.’ ” To Gonaba’s frustration, people he thinks need him the most, such as the Baka people, reject his offer to empower them through western education so that they might revolt against their oppressors. Quite the opposite, the Baka people come to see Gonaba as part of the problem and not the solution. —Directory of World Cinema

Director

Bassek Ba Kobhio

Bassek ba Kobhio was born in Nindje, in Cameroon. He has previously directed three feature films and founded Films Terre Africaine, a Cameroon based production company, in 1991. Four years later he launched Ecrans Noirs, an itinerant festival in Cameroon, Gabon and the Central African Republic. He is also the author of three novels. —quinzaine

Didier Ouenangare

Didier Florent Ouenangaré was born in 1953 in Bambari, in the Central African Republic. He began his studies in Abidjan, before returning to France, continuing his studies at Rennes and Paris. He has directed many documentaries and the short film “Why Not?”. The Silence of the Forest (2003) was his first feature film co-directed with the Cmaeroon filmmaker Bassek Ba Kobhio. It is a unique film and was also the first feature film from the Central African Republic. (Didier Ouénangaré died September 29, 2006.) —Africulture