"There is no Mauritanian cinema
This is how one critic put it when questioned in 2014 by RFI on the occasion of the release of Abderrahmane Sissako's Timbuktu . Not that it never existed, but on the contrary, it disappeared at a very young age, due to a lack of support and a real desire to set up a national industry. Before independence, it is in any case difficult to trace the history of Mauritanian cinema still under French tutelage. In a country that had barely a dozen cinemas for 1 million inhabitants, the seventh art was to be built in a stammering manner at the country's independence. It is through the impulse of two personalities that the public will gradually take the path of the big screen. A Frenchman by the name of Gaumèze became one of the first cinema operators in the country, while the jack-of-all-trades Hammam - or Hemmam, depending on the spelling - Fall developed a network of small complexes, buying up cinemas that had been run by the colonists. From cinema manager, he became producer, then director in the 1970s, with films between documentaries and fictions like Terjit (1976), or Modern Nomad (1977). At the end of the decade, the capital Nouakchott has ten cinemas, all owned by the author turned businessman. But his untimely death in 1978, a few months before that of the other father of Mauritanian cinema Ould Saleck, precipitated the nascent national industry into a new period of dearth. Without help from the newly formed government, the National Cinema Office, set up under the Islamic republic, disappeared. Since then, there are no real movie theaters in Mauritania. Satellite television, DVD and digital media are the preferred means of disseminating cinema in a country where it is still extremely difficult to make a film.
That said, the creativity of Mauritanian filmmakers is expressed abroad, and has been since the 1960s. Among these filmmakers is Med Hondo, a Mauritanian filmmaker who emigrated to France and had a difficult career due to the racism of French society at the time. From his experiences, he made his first feature film, Soleil Ô (1971), a furious and rebellious work that tells the story of a black immigrant who left for Paris to follow in the footsteps of "his ancestors the Gauls". And the disillusionment that follows. Critically acclaimed, it was screened at Cannes and won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Festival. Despite a difficult distribution, the film has become a household name in international circuits, and with the greatest. At the end of 2010, just before Hondo's death, Martin Scorsese contributed to the restoration of this unique work, now available on video on demand. Med Hondo, beyond the filmmaker, is also an actor dubbing well known to the French. He interpreted the voices of Eddy Murphy and Morgan Freeman, notably in Shrek. A way to continue to live from the cinema, while continuing his unique achievements, such as West Indies (1979), Sarraounia (1986) or more recently Fatima, the Algerian of Dakar (2004).
At the same time, several filmmakers are developing a career by training abroad. In the early 2000s, Abderrahmane Sissako made a name for himself with En attendant le bonheur (2002), which won the International Press Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Sissako worked with other Mauritanian filmmakers, including Abderrahmane Ahmed Salem, to set up the Maison des cinéastes. He is now the director of this training and support institute for young filmmakers, which is working to create new stars. The House of Filmmakers is also the initiator of the National Film Week, an opportunity for young creators to show their films to the public. In 2014, Sissako became the first African to win the César for best director, with Timbuktu. Shot in the impressive city of Oualata, it is a work that will also be awarded the Cesar for best film and best screenplay, before flying to the Oscars. As for female directors, Mariem Mint Beyrouk is the first Mauritanian filmmaker, also an activist for the integration of women in the national audiovisual industry. Her documentary Les Chercheuses de Pierre (2008) won an award in Brussels, and her work in television is now recognized beyond the borders.
A great victory, even if there is still a long way to go towards a real national cinematography. In 1978, Sidney Sokhona, a Mauritanian filmmaker and now a politician, wrote for Cahiers du Cinéma: "Africa has been colonized, and so has its cinema A bitter observation, but also a message for the new generations, a call for cinematographic independence, and always more creation.
Anecdotes from filming in Mauritania
Did you know that? The Fifth Element by Luc Besson (1997), starring Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich or Gary Oldman and Maïwenn, was partly shot in Mauritania. The scenes taking place in Egypt, surrounded by mythology and allowing to find the famous fifth element, highlight the beauty of the Mauritanian deserts. The interiors, on the other hand, were entirely reconstructed in studio. Moreover, the children who animate the first sequence of the film had to be cast again, because the team could not fly from Mauritania to England, where the scenes were shot in the famous Pinewood studios.
More recently, it is the town of Rosso that hosts some scenes of the film Guilty, or The Mauritanian by Kevin Macdonald (2021). In this poignant biopic telling the story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, wrongly imprisoned in Guantanamo, Tahar Rahim plays the man from Rosso. The film, mainly shot in Cape Town (which is the location of Guantanamo), stops for a few scenes in Mohamedou's native region. Critically acclaimed, as much for its direction as for the performances of Jodie Foster and Tahar Rahim, Designated Guilty is well worth the detour during your trip to this country rich in landscape and culture.
