[English review] "Kafou" by Bruno Mourral

Directed by Bruno Mourral, “Kafou” tells the story of Doc and Zoe's night adventure. Their mission? To make a special delivery. The rules? Never roll down the car windows, never open the trunk and never stop the car. Of course, nothing goes as planned. They get into one bad situation after the other and each time they have to make a choice questioning their humanity.

I discovered “Kafou” through my Instagram suggestions two months ago. The film has been on the festival circuit for about a year now and has been a huge success. That's why I couldn't miss it when I saw it in the selection of the 13th edition of the European indie film festival which took place from May 4th to 6th. I won't hide the fact that I went in thinking that I’d not write a review if I didn't like it because I believe knowing how to keep quiet can also be a form of support sometimes ... BUT I happened to like it, so it’s my pleasure to tell you all about it. Let me start with the only downside: the sound quality. When the actors were whispering or shouting while speaking quickly, the sound lacked sometimes clarity. It was too much for my brain that was already struggling keeping up between the neologisms in the Haitian Kreyol and the English subtitles. However, it wasn't a hindrance to general comprehension. I'm not the target audience. I would even say that “Kafou” is the opposite of my style of entertainment #romcomfan. Nevertheless, in my exploration of Caribbean audiovisual references that has been driving me for the past two years, this short/medium-length film meets many of my expectations.

Lokalisation ?

Check. I'm far from being an expert on Haitian culture, I've never visited Haiti so I can imagine that there are many subtleties that escaped me. Nevertheless, I am Caribbean enough to realize that the film carries its Haitian identity through elements that speak to the Caribbean community as a whole. Of course, there is the fact that 98.99% of the dialogue is in Kreyol, but it's in every detail like the food, the hairstyles, the radio shows. In fact, the radio programs punctuated the tense silences and were just to die of laughter.

A cinematography without distorting Black skin?

Check. The whole film takes place at night, in a poorly lit neighborhood. This contributes to create an anxious atmosphere. It's already a challenge to film Black skins so to have this nice rendering while filming in such extreme indie conditions is admirable. The DP then explained to me in detail the process of how to light up the skin. I don't have the technical vocabulary, so I won't venture to try to transcribe. In any case, you should know that the issue of skin brightness and lighting was a real concern during shooting and post-production and they worked hard to achieve this result.

A story with coherence?

Check. If I could allow myself a comparison, all things considered of course, “Kafou” made me think of “Old Boy” by Park Chan Wook. The rapid succession of problems starts from the most trivial event to the most extreme, but the whole thing remains logical in a universal comic brutality and in the complexity of raw emotions. “Kafou” is the teaser for a feature film called “Kidnapping S.A.” (Kidnapping Inc.?) I'm really curious to see how it turns out. I saw the film with a restricted non-Caribbean audience where the average age was 50. I think they didn't have the codes to understand how funny it was... I mean, the police chef’s lines? Always in the right comic timing...I think that watching the film with a Caribbean audience would be in a different atmosphere. Besides, another tiny negative remark… The female characters... They are props, just there to perform clichés (negative in my opinion) about Black women. That being said, I don't expect every director to be aware of these issues. I just hope that more Caribbean films that put women in a positive light will be produced to counterbalance the majority of productions with high testosterone levels.

To sum it up, if you have the opportunity to see “Kafou”, don't hesitate. Films like this allow us to regain control of the narrative but above all they deliver the kind of entertainment in which what makes us special reflect how universal our identities are. Come on, let's end on a light fangirl moment. Thanks to @Oncle_Fouyé who attended the festival with me, I have a video of me asking my questions during the Q&A session (I don't like my accent in English ugh!) and a photo with Bruno Mourral who graciously accepted to pose with me. This day will remain a great memory.