Event

LE PRESIDENT

(The President)
Dir. Jean Pierre Bekolo, 2013
Cameroon. 64 mins.
In French with English subtitles

Our president was betrothed to Cameroon with great love and passion, yet over the years the fire has died. He spends more time in Switzerland than in Cameroon. What is he too good for us now? JEAN-PIERRE BEKOLO

The night before an important summit in the near-future, the head of state vanishes into ostensibly thin air. Potential heirs and overthrow-ers converge around the capitol, while bloggers, hangers-on and talking heads tussle with the presidents problematic legacy. Never snarling, Bekolo gestures both unmistakably towards Cameroons own 31-year president Paul Biya as well as the varied bigshots across the continent who have consolidated post-colonial power in the vacuum of leadership.

Bekolos piercing film is a fake documentary that asks barbed, tough-love questions of his homelands catastrophic experiments with democracy. It was through the small screen that he punctuated every moment of my life!