Notre-Dame du Nile
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Notre-Dame du Nile |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 2019 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Atiq Rahimi |
| script | Atiq Rahimi Ramata Sy |
| production |
Marie Legrand Rani Massalha Dimitri Rassam |
| camera | Thierry Arbogast |
| cut |
Hervé de Luze Jacqueline Mariani |
| occupation | |
| |
Notre-Dame du Nil is a drama film directed by Atiq Rahimi that premiered in September 2019 at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released in French cinemas on February 5, 2020. The film is based on the novel Notre Dame du Nil by Scholastique Mukasonga .
action
In Rwanda in 1973. At the Institute Notre-Dame du Nil, a Christian girls' school located very close to a source of the Nile , there is a quota for Tutsi . Only ten percent of the students are Tutsi, the others Hutu . The elite are raised here, their parents are wealthy, and one student is even the daughter of a minister. Rwanda is a fertile land and the institute is surrounded by forests, rolling hills and green meadows. Only French is allowed at the school and the director does not tolerate thieves or liars. Around ten girls share a bedroom. On the walls there are photos and posters of the families, but also of some Western stars.
The pupils are assigned to the daily tasks. Some of them are supposed to clean up the school's namesake, the black Madonna Notre-Dame du Nil. Occasionally Mr. Fontenaille visits the girls, who makes drawings of the girls and gives them a little pleasure. Once the schoolgirls Modest and Veronica visit him in his house. Mr. Fontenaille is fascinated by the different African ethnic groups, studies them intensively, has many photos of people of various ethnic groups and has even set up a small museum in his house that deals with the Tutsi culture. He explains to the Tutsi girl Veronica that for him they are the aristocrats of black Africa. In the garden, Mr. Fontenaille has built a tomb for a former black pharaoh, which is said to contain the bones of the Tutsi ruler, whom he calls the “Black Queen”, adorned with a small pyramid. At least he thinks it's her real bones.
One day when the schoolgirl Veronica remembers the story of the "Black Queen" that Mr. Fontenaille told her and with whom she has been obsessed ever since, the Tutsi girl visits him, is given a drug in the drink by him and is given by him drawn. Veronica experiences hallucinations that are shaped by the culture of her ancestors, but also mix with Christian motifs. When a classmate finds out about this, she seeks advice from a witch. In order to send the "Black Queen", with whom her classmate is apparently obsessed, back into the realm of the dead and thus also banish Veronica's visions, she is supposed to perform a ritual that includes many complicated steps.
When the students Modesta and Gloriosa come back to the institute one day, they make up a lie that they have been attacked by insurgent rebels who are planning to raid the institute. Modesta and Gloriosa are celebrated as heroines and the institute is placed under the protection of soldiers. After two Hutu girls try in a night and fog action to give the Notre-Dame du Nil a more pronounced nose because she appears “to Tutsi” to them, the students and teachers of the institute discover the next day during a procession to the Black Madonna that she no longer has a nose. The minister's daughter, better informed, publicly expresses suspicion that this act was committed by Tutsi.
production
The film is based on the 2012 novel Notre Dame du Nil by Rwandan writer Scholastique Mukasonga , which is inspired by real events leading up to the 1994 civil war genocide. It was directed by the French writer and documentary filmmaker Atiq Rahimi , who also adapted Mukasonga's novel for the film.
The film was first shown on September 5, 2019 at the Toronto International Film Festival . At the end of October 2019 there was a screening at the Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia, and in January 2020 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival . It was released in French cinemas on February 5, 2020. Also in February 2020, the film was shown at the Berlin Film Festival as part of the Generation 14plus section and was awarded the Transparent Bear as the best film in the section . The jury's reasoning stated: "The film told us, on many levels, the story of people who are geographically and culturally so far away and yet were not foreign to us. The colors, music and poetry captivated us and left us with it Feel the film in all its facets. Through the great acting performance and narrative style, the people were presented to us in their dignity and importance and given an authentic feeling. [..] We were convinced politically, poetically, stylistically and humanely. "
Awards
Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival 2019
- Nomination as best film for the International Feature Film Competition Award ( Atiq Rahimi )
El Gouna Film Festival 2019
- Nomination for the Golden Star in the Feature Narrative Competition (Atiq Rahimi)
Berlin International Film Festival 2020
- Transparent bear for the best film in the Generation 14plus section (Atiq Rahimi)
- Nomination for the Amnesty International Film Prize
literature
- Scholastique Mukasonga: Notre Dame du Nil . Gallimard, Paris 2012, ISBN 978-2-07-013342-0 .
- Scholastique Mukasonga: The Holy Virgin of the Nile . Verlag Das Wunderhorn, Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-88423-469-3 (translated by Andreas Jandl).
Web links
- Notre-Dame du Nil in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Our Lady of the Nile in the program of the Toronto International Film Festival (English)
- Notre-Dame du Nil in the program of the Berlin Film Festival
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Generation: Should I Stay or Should I Go - Young people on the move. In: berlinale.de. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
- ^ Program booklet of the Palm Springs International Film Festival 2020. In: psfilmfest.org. Retrieved January 3, 2020 (PDF; 331 KB)
- ↑ https://www.berlinale.de/de/presse/pressemitteilungen/detail_47634.html
- ↑ Transparent bears and awards from the Federal Agency for Civic Education for Generation 14plus. In: berlinale.de. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
- ↑ 19 Berlinale films nominated for the Amnesty Film Prize 2020. In: amnesty.de, February 20, 2020.