african films at the 98 gay and lesbian film festival

Dakan
Guinea/France, 1997, 90 min, (subtitled)

1997: Dir: Mohammed Camara. Dakan boldly opens with an explicitly homosexual scene, a first for African cinema, in which two men passionately embrace. Made in Guinea, this is a tale of the battle between love and social convention.

Manga and Sory are the only offspring of single parents and though they try to conform to the requirements of family, the moral and emotional demands of their parents, they cannot.

In coming out they become invisible and though there is no word to describe their love there are traditions and the most elaborate of rituals, tailored to cure such deviancy.

Dakan is an important film, it questions the notion that there is a universal gay culture, and more importantly, the notion that homosexuality is un-African.

Manga and Sori are youngsters about to finish school. In the evening they meet, "to revise for exams", as they tell their parents. Actually, they share amorous moments of tenderness in Sori's car, or outside cafes. With Dakan, the first African movie about homosexuality , the Guinean actor Mohamad Camara tells a touching and humble love story, his first feature as a director and scriptwriter.