Direction: Philippe Lacôte
Country: Ivory Coast
Regardless if you’re in the mood or not for this type of fantasy thrillers, no one can accuse Ivorian writer/director Philippe Lacôte from not using his imagination in his third feature, Night of the Kings. The film chronicles the weirdest night in the life of a young pickpocket (Bakary Koné) recently admitted to the unparalleled Ivory Coast MACA prison, the only one in the world ruled by an inmate.
The prison’s master, Blackbeard (Steve Tientcheu), is sick and soon has to take his own life according to the rules of this remote prison located in the middle of the jungle. While his throne is highly disputed by the covetous inmates, Lass (Abdoul Karim Konaté) and Half-Mad (Jean Cyrille Digbeu), he welcomes the fresher into his cell and gives him the name Roman, the prince without kingdom whom he was expecting to appear any minute. Roman, the storyteller, is compelled to entertain the detainees during the special ‘red moon night' but is advised not to conclude his half-real, half-fantasized story about a legendary criminal called Zama King. In order to protect his own life, the story should be told until the next morning.
Lacôte seduces us into a confined web and then drops us into a cryptic world of fantasy often adorned by visual amazement. Although the prison life itself never feels authentic, there’s something deeply haunting here that gives the fable a spectral dimension. This nightmarish vibe is periodically eased by chants and choreography that, from my perspective, could have been less artistically elaborated. Nonetheless, there’s an undeniable originality in the making of this film, an entrancing prison drama centered around never-before-seen codes and rituals, and with a sharp political bite amidst the chimerical fragments.
