The beginnings of Djiboutian cinema
Unfortunately, there are very few Djiboutian films, but we can mention the feature film Le Grand Moussa, shot in 1984 by Ahmed Dini, which tells the story of an anti-hero suffering from dwarfism who takes his revenge on the society that has excluded him by becoming a swindler.
In the 1980s, the documentary program Le Livre beige , produced by RTD, Djibouti's television station, gave visibility to a number of local filmmakers. Moussa Farah directed the episode Les Caravaniers in 1987, about the life of caravaneers in desert landscapes, and a village in Goroabus on the banks of a never-dry river. The film was shown at the Vues d'Afrique festival in Canada in 1989. Another episode, Forced Landing, was shot by Saad Houssein in 1988. It follows a little boy's journey from desert to school.
From literature to cinema: French people in Djibouti
Djibouti's history as a French colony has made it a popular destination for artists in exile. Among them, the poet Arthur Rimbaud, but also Henry de Monfreid, who have inspired screenplays.
Éclipse totale (1995) recounts the stormy relationship between Rimbaud, played by Leonardo di Caprio, and Verlaine, interpreted by David Thewlis. Directed by Poland's Agnieszka Holland, the film was partly shot in Djibouti on the Ghoubbet-el-Kharab cove, with its view of Devil's Island, and in the Petit Bara and Grand Bara deserts. Lettres de la mer Rouge (2005), a TV film by Eric Martin and Emmanuel Caussé, is dedicated to the writer and adventurer Monfreid. The film was partly shot in the vicinity of Lac Abbé. Lac Abbé is also said to have inspired the sets of the film Planet of the Apes (studio sets).
Armed fictions
Now home to a French military base, Djibouti is also the backdrop for a number of testosterone-fueled dramas. Claire Denis' Beau travail (2000) was largely shot in Arta. The film recounts the life of legionnaires in the extreme conditions of the desert, between virile friendships and drudgery, with the extraordinary Denis Lavant. The final scene is a must-see in modern cinema! In 2005, Gérard Pirès' Les Chevaliers du ciel was shot around the Djibouti military base. A Top Gun à la française, the film was largely inspired by the comic strip Les Aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure by Jean-Michel Charlier and Albert Uderzo.
Addressing another aspect of this armed zone, Wim Wenders invests the towns of Tadjourah and Sagallou for the shooting of his film Submergence, in which one of the characters is kidnapped by jihadists.
Finally, in L'Intervention (2019), Fred Grivois stages a historic event that marks the birth of the GIGN in 1976, when Somali independence fighters take hostage a busload of French soldiers' children in Loyada, a village close to the Somali border.
Local heroes with twisted destinies
Foreign filmmakers have also gradually taken an interest in the stories of African men and women, involving local actors. Si le vent soulève les sables, by Marion Hänsel, a leading figure in Belgian cinema, was released in 2006. Based on the novel La Chamelle by Marc Durin-Valois, it recounts the misadventures of a nomadic family trying to survive in the face of drought. The film received numerous awards.
The story of Waris Dirie, a former top model of Somali origin who became a UN ambassador, is told in Desert Flower, a moving biopic directed by Sherry Hormann that denounces the practice of female circumcision.
