PORT DJEMA
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Shadow Distribution Director: Eric Heumann Writer: Eric Heumann Cast: Jean-Yves Dubois, Frederic Pierrot, Nathalie Boutefeu, Christophe Odent, Edouard Montoute
If Eric Heumann, who wrote and directed "Port Djema," had the writing talent of Albert Camus and the directorial gifts of Luchino Visconti, what a movie this could have made! Of course, the challenge is unfair. Heumann may have entertained no plan to equal the great French-Algerian classic, "The Stranger," made into a movie with Marcello Mastroianni 31 years ago, but he darn sure conveys a corresponding ambiance. "The Stranger" is an existential novel about a man, Arthur Mersault, who shows no emotion upon hearing of his mother's death and later goes on to kill an Algerian during the French occupation of that North African country. We say that it's an existential novel because it deals with a man's apparent lack of purpose in a hostile environment and the senseless act of violence he commits against an innocent person.
While the Visconti film of the Camus novel, "Il Straniero," is a brave attempt to put a literary work on the screen, "Port Djema" is its reverse side: a cinematic work that aspires to tell a story through a succession of images. It succeeds only to a degree, its potency marred by the irritating refusal of its principal character to show his emotions. It focuses on a French surgeon, Pierre Feldman (Jean-Yves Dubois), who leaves his stable practice in Paris to travel to the (fictional) East African country of Port Djema which, judging by the Ethiopian Airlines plane which takes him there is actually filmed in various parts of Ethiopia. He checks into a run-down hotel on one of the infinite numbers of unpaved roads en route to a more rural area. Since we are aware that a war is going on in the northern region of the country between the government forces and a minority clan, the Assads, we assume that he has traveled there to cater to the wounded as did his friend, yet another physician who was shot dead by forces loyal to the government. Instead, he is to be considered an existential tourist, one who uses his free will to find a new meaning in life: to locate a boy whose photograph he holds and who is said to have been more or less adopted by his unfortunate friend, Antoine (Frederic Pierrot).
While "Port Djema" tells the story of his experiences in a land so un-western it must be thoroughly alienating to any European, it relates the simple tale through a series of fragile images, of chance meetings and untested suspicions. Who, we want to know, is this so-called French diplomat, Jerome Delbos (Christophe Odent), who forces his presence upon the surgeon and urges him to leave the country quickly? While at first he appears to be a friendly counselor looking out for the interests of the traveler, we soon suspect that he is acting as an agent of the French, who are enigmatically siding with the Port Djema government during the day and with the rebels at night. And what do we make of Alice (Nathalie Boutefeu), a lovely, young Swiss photographer who is traveling alone through hostile territory to photograph the war? The enigma is sometimes intriguing, often frustrating: if Pierre doesn't show that he gives much of a damn despite his compulsion to travel to dangerous areas (he's too listless even to make a pass at the girl), why should we?
Some of the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together by the conclusion of the story, and along the way our quiet journey is broken up by gunshots, by the sight of bodies lying bloodied in the hot desert sands, by the strange spectacle of a blase surgeon who travels almost mindlessly into belligerent locales in search of an elusive young boy.
Eric Heuman has won awards for his direction, perhaps a testament to his willingness to focus forcefully on a single individual despite many potential distractions. We see a section of an exotic part of the world strictly through his eyes. "Port Djema" is a spare and elusive picture whose core audience are viewers who appreciate the ethereal, the puzzling, the sensitively-paced. If your foreign travels have never been existential--that is, if you go only to the high spots of Europe in search of a little culture and a great time--you'll have your mind broadened. You'll follow with trepidation the jaunt of this bizarre fellow who leaves the prosperity and safety of a stable city with pleasant climate to risk his very life in a blazing hell-hole. On the other hand you may wonder what Pierre's fuss is all about. "Port Djema" is a patient inquiry into the mind of the East African and of one quixotic Frenchman which eschews melodrama in order to provide a textured and spare cinematic experience.
Not Rated. Running Time: 93 minutes. (C) 1998 Harvey Karten
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