“Tiébélé” on LCP: the mine of despair

In the school yard, a donkey and goats graze peacefully. “Oscar, I’m proud of you, you’re the second best student in the school.smiles the director. But how are you at home? » The child, no doubt also intimidated by the camera, does not open his teeth. The fate of his father, Bob, who works in a dangerous mine to unearth a little gold, doubtless worries him.

Bob, his friend Youssouf tells the camera, has not always risked his life at the bottom of trenches whose retaining walls would make an engineer green with horror. He was a talented craftsman and a good tradesman. “People always left buying something from him, sometimes without realizing it! » The arrival of jihadists in the region has changed the situation. Tourists have deserted Tiébélé, which they came to visit to admire the royal court of the Kassena country, the name of one of the oldest ethnic groups in the country. It is also a pity that the documentary does not give more details about this singular architectural ensemble.

A cinematographic cachet

A warm, heavy light falls on the dirt roads, crossed by noisy motorbikes. Self-defense militiamen roam the region to fight against terrorists. They take advantage of it to lay down the law. A stolen chicken? “A fine and lashes”smiles one of them, gun in hand. “I have always been against , reacts Youssouf, common thread of this film and former tourist guide. These groups, driven by a feeling of impunity, would multiply the violence. “They torture because they never went to school”continues the talkative character, convinced that only education stems cruelty.

The plans follow each other but are not alike. Also a cinematographer and photographer, Benjamin Géminel constructs his images with care, often decentering the characters. There is a cinematographic cachet in this documentary, also visible on the website lcp.fr. The director is used to serious subjects: we have seen him at work on child soldiers in the Congo (Congo Paradiso) or the life of a young Comorian in the suburbs of Marseille (Far from the northern districts).

Youssouf assures him, he will never work in the mine. Gold turns heads, when it doesn’t simply take our lives, warns this friendly character who we find sitting in the village square, in the shade of a huge tree. No question, either, of leaving the village. How will Tiébélé keep its soul if the inhabitants leave?

The documentary is from 2021, but the situation in Burkina Faso, where a military junta took power in January to fight terrorism, remains critical. At least twenty-seven civilians lost their lives in an attack in early July. Last attack to date, nine people, including six soldiers, were killed last Thursday in the north of the country.