CLANDESTINE
[CLANDO]
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 6.0 Alternative Scale: **1/2 out of ****
Cameroon, 1996 Running Length: 1:38 MPAA Classification: No MPAA Rating (Violence, mature themes, brief nudity, sex, profanity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Shown at the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, 5/4/97 & 5/5/97
Cast: Paulin Fodouop, Henriette Fenda, Caroline Redl, Joseph Momo,
Guillaume Nana
Director: Jean-Marie Teno
Producer: Jean-Marie Teno
Screenplay: Jean-Marie Teno
Cinematography: Nurith Aviv
Music: Ben's Belinga
In French & Bamileke with subtitles
Cameroon is not known for feature film output. In fact, according to director Jean-Marie Teno, the African nation has been responsible for fewer than a dozen full-length productions. CLANDESTINE, Teno's first venture outside the documentary realm, is the latest motion picture to emerge from Cameroon, and, while its perspective of life there is revealing, the screenplay is in need of polishing.
Anatole Sobgui (Paulin Fodouop) is an out-of-work computer programmer who earns his living by operating as a clando (unauthorized cab) driver. A former political prisoner who went to jail for participating in an anti-government group, Anatole is observed carefully by a police force all-too-willing to put him back behind bars. Needing a break from his homeland, at least in the short term, Anatole takes a trip to Germany to locate the son of a local rich man. Once there, he hooks up with a white female activist (Caroline Redl) and begins to contemplate how he can best help his country.
The biggest problem with CLANDESTINE is that it feels like the narrative was grafted onto a documentary. All of the true-to-life stuff about Cameroon is insightful and illuminating, especially for someone largely unfamiliar with the country's political situation. Unfortunately, the most basic characteristics of a fictional enterprise -- plot, characterization, and so on -- are left half-undeveloped. The story is often confusing, occasionally bordering on incoherent, and CLANDESTINE's central figure remains frustratingly ill-developed. Other characters, like Anatole's wife and German girlfriend, function as little more than ciphers and plot devices.
The most compelling question posed by CLANDESTINE is whether violence is a viable option in the search for a solution to Cameroon's troubles. "To shoot or not to shoot?" is how Anatole phrases it, and the implications of advocating either position haunt him. Of course, there is no answer to this dilemma, and Teno is careful not to take sides, but the issue provides food for thought.
I'm not sure why Teno chose to fashion this movie as a feature rather than a documentary, but, had he decided upon the latter format, the results might have been more satisfactory. As it is, while CLANDESTINE offers a unique insider's view into an oppressed society stifled by poverty, the background material is more compelling than Anatole's story. This makes the film an effective tool for instruction, but not a great motion picture in the conventional sense.
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews