''Xime'' is a

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

Bissau-Guinean

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Sana Na N'Hada Sana Na N’Hada (born 1950) is a filmmaker from Guinea Bissau, "the first filmmaker from Guinea-Bissau".Fernando ArenasThe Filmography of Guinea-Bissau’s Sana Na N’Hada: From the Return of Amílcar Cabral to the Threat of Global Drug Traffic ...

Plot

In the early 1960s, in the village of Xime in

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a country in West Africa that covers with an estimated population of 2,026,778. It borders Senegal to Guinea-Bissau–Senegal border, its north and Guinea to Guinea–Guinea-Bissau b ...

, Iala, the father of Raul and Bedan, is worried about his two sons. The eldest, Raul, animated by desires of revolt, has joined the liberation movement, unknown to anyone. He is wanted by the Portuguese colonial authorities while he studies at a seminary in

Bissau Bissau () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Guinea-Bissau. it had a population of 492,004. Bissau is located on the Geba River estuary, off the Atlantic Ocean, and is Guinea-Bissau's largest city, major port, its administr ...

. Bedan, the younger of the two, a turbulent young man still a teenager, is almost at the age where he must reluctantly submit to the traditional coming-of-age rituals. One of these is dressing in women's clothing. Bedan is also admiring his father's young fiance. In the end, Raul is fatally wounded and stumbles to the wedding, and Bedan joins the revolutionary cause.

Cast

* Aful Macka : Iala * Justino Neto : Raul * José Tamba : Bedan *Etelvina Gomes : N'dai *Juan Carlos Tajes : Cunha *Jacqueline Camara *Saene Nanque *Namba Na Nfadan

Production

This was only the fourth film to be produced in

. It was a French-Dutch co-production. It was the first film to be directed by

, although he collaborated on several short films with

Flora Gomes Flora Gomes is a Bissau-Guinean film director. He was born in Cadique, Guinea-Bissau on 31 December 1949 and after high school in Cuba, he decided to study film at the Instituto Cubano del Arte y la Industria Cinematográficos in Havana. Shot ...

. It was a semi-autobiographical work, and he returned to Guinea-Bissau to film it after studying in Cuba.

Release and reception

''Xime'' was screened at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

, in the

Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...

category. It received the Special Jury Prize at the Festival international du film d'Amiens. ''Xime'' also received the Special Jury Prize at the Festival International du Premier Film D'Annonay. The film was awarded the Intercultural Communication Prize for a Feature Film at the 1995 Vues d'Afrique festival in Montreal. Deborah Young of

Variety.com ''Variety'' is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation. It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933, ''Daily Variety'' was launched, based in ...

was very praiseful of the film. She wrote that it "interests not only for its rare locale but for a fresh approach to historical storytelling" from N'Hada, while the "film's intentions are ambitious, and its black characters are interestingly three-dimensional."

References

{{reflist

External links

Xime
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

1994 films Bissau-Guinean drama films 1994 drama films 1990s English-language films