ABC Africa, which is simply Kiarostami's response to a plea for exposure and "international attention" by a Uganda's women organization to the plight of 2 million AIDS (and war) orphans, may be viewed as a reflective journal piece, a painterly poem, and a political support project all in one.
Certainly, Kiarostami's approach is low-key, and understandably limited by an outsider's perspective. He must apprise all through a sensitivity to cultural differences--and privileges. So his work relies on an egalitarianism in the sense that it flows out of a plurality of centers that Kiarostami and his cameras gravitate to. Thus, detachment is minimized both by the use of hand-held digital and still cameras, and by the participation of all--crew and "cast"--in the goings on of film. And the integration of sound, song, dance, color, and voice, are made convincingly real. This is an intuitive, and congenial documentation, but never gives any indication of being a puff piece. If Kiarostami doesn't delve too deeply into the more disturbing side of the realty he depicts, it may well be that he's acknowledging his guest status--and perhaps, understandably, his lack of knowledge.
In any case, the results are impressive--lyrical, screen-filled images insist on the beauty and reality of the unseen. Kiarostami is the poet-painter who fills his surfaces with both filmic and still portraits of orphans, women and taxi drivers. Heads, faces, clapping hands, and skin are joined to movement, gestures, and intonations which constitute an open social world--one in which Kiarostami himself joins by gesture, and voice as he bobs his camera in the midst of the long, colorful boys-chant scene. Almost everyone gets to have fun with his cameras and some resistant ones quickly break into bold smiles. But the lyricism is tempered by the AIDS center scenes, and by an invariably non-romanticized approach which never spares us the dire physical and social contexts of these phoenix-like women and children.
Yes, Kiarostami does make a political statement in "ABC Africa"--he simply makes visible the lives of the Ugandan orphans and the courageous, hard-working women who have committed to saving their lives. "Imagine that grandmother living with 35 kids..." "half of their life in the dark" (no electricity) says one of the crew in the black out scene. "Humans can adapt to anything..." another says, and what is more human than the human-ness of these people, is the film's point. A 10 year commitment to each child's independence and empowerment--clothing, educating, providing safety for, feeding, economizing, is a collective endeavor worth shouting from the rooftops.
But Kiarostami makes a number of subtle points as regards the cultural/political blocks this army of volunteers must counter in order to survive. A means Abstincenc, B means Be faithful and C means Condom with "C" being a last resort only. The Pope's image is evident all around and US aid is behind him-- a poster of Bob Marley can hardly compete with that. Then there is the government which is a part of the process and names a lot of the rules by which the work proceeds and is financed. On the countering side you have a strong woman's world view--the few men who appear blend in with the women and children-- which is like the African sun referred to by the crew in the black-out scene.
"ABC Africa's" truly remarkable ending has cumulus clouds transforming into the full faces of the dead and the living down below the clouds. As the adopted Ugandan girl is flown to her new home in Austria, some kind of visibility and solidarity has been achieved for those on and under the dispossessed terrain below.
Certainly, Kiarostami's approach is low-key, and understandably limited by an outsider's perspective. He must apprise all through a sensitivity to cultural differences--and privileges. So his work relies on an egalitarianism in the sense that it flows out of a plurality of centers that Kiarostami and his cameras gravitate to. Thus, detachment is minimized both by the use of hand-held digital and still cameras, and by the participation of all--crew and "cast"--in the goings on of film. And the integration of sound, song, dance, color, and voice, are made convincingly real. This is an intuitive, and congenial documentation, but never gives any indication of being a puff piece. If Kiarostami doesn't delve too deeply into the more disturbing side of the realty he depicts, it may well be that he's acknowledging his guest status--and perhaps, understandably, his lack of knowledge.
In any case, the results are impressive--lyrical, screen-filled images insist on the beauty and reality of the unseen. Kiarostami is the poet-painter who fills his surfaces with both filmic and still portraits of orphans, women and taxi drivers. Heads, faces, clapping hands, and skin are joined to movement, gestures, and intonations which constitute an open social world--one in which Kiarostami himself joins by gesture, and voice as he bobs his camera in the midst of the long, colorful boys-chant scene. Almost everyone gets to have fun with his cameras and some resistant ones quickly break into bold smiles. But the lyricism is tempered by the AIDS center scenes, and by an invariably non-romanticized approach which never spares us the dire physical and social contexts of these phoenix-like women and children.
Yes, Kiarostami does make a political statement in "ABC Africa"--he simply makes visible the lives of the Ugandan orphans and the courageous, hard-working women who have committed to saving their lives. "Imagine that grandmother living with 35 kids..." "half of their life in the dark" (no electricity) says one of the crew in the black out scene. "Humans can adapt to anything..." another says, and what is more human than the human-ness of these people, is the film's point. A 10 year commitment to each child's independence and empowerment--clothing, educating, providing safety for, feeding, economizing, is a collective endeavor worth shouting from the rooftops.
But Kiarostami makes a number of subtle points as regards the cultural/political blocks this army of volunteers must counter in order to survive. A means Abstincenc, B means Be faithful and C means Condom with "C" being a last resort only. The Pope's image is evident all around and US aid is behind him-- a poster of Bob Marley can hardly compete with that. Then there is the government which is a part of the process and names a lot of the rules by which the work proceeds and is financed. On the countering side you have a strong woman's world view--the few men who appear blend in with the women and children-- which is like the African sun referred to by the crew in the black-out scene.
"ABC Africa's" truly remarkable ending has cumulus clouds transforming into the full faces of the dead and the living down below the clouds. As the adopted Ugandan girl is flown to her new home in Austria, some kind of visibility and solidarity has been achieved for those on and under the dispossessed terrain below.