Olivier Assoua’s first feature film was shot on a low budget in the small Cameroonian town where he was born. As he tells the BBC, the low cost made it possible to make the film – and that’s why his longtime dream should come true when it is released in the coming months.
When Olivier Assoau was 10 years old, his civil servant father bought a VHS player. He was the only family in the neighborhood to own one.
“When we did well in school, my father allowed us to watch a film as a reward. It motivated me to do well in school because I really wanted to watch films,” says Assoua.
And so, a permanent passion began.
At the age of 15, Assoua left Cameroon for France and in 2006 he moved to the United Kingdom.
Years later, he returned to his hometown to embark on a filming journey. He wrote, directed, shot and edited his first feature film, La Vallée des Aigles (“The Eagle’s Nest” is his English title).
“I made the film for £ 5,000 ($ 6,400). If I had paid the market price for each role, I could never have done it,” says Assoua.
“My film The Valley of the Eagles tells the story of two friends in a small town where many young people migrate to larger cities or Europe in search of a better life.
“In this film, the two main characters come across a large sum of money. One of the friends decides to go to Europe with the money, while the other wants to stay in Cameroon and do something.”
The plight of Africans
Assoua considers migration, economic or forced, as an extremely important subject.
“Many Africans die trying to get to Europe,” he says. “We think going to Europe will improve their lives.”
A UN study on migration in 2019, seeking to understand the reasons for migration to Europe, interviewed nearly 2,000 migrants from 39 African countries and found that almost all would make the same perilous journey again despite the danger.
Assoua believes that many of the problems in Africa can be attributed to the legacy of colonialism, which forced different groups in the same country and distorted economic relations, both internally and internationally.
“It will take time to heal and get out of the mind of the colonized subject and rebuild [African countries]”, Said Assoua.
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The stories that are told are important, he says.
“Part of that [the rebuilding] also creates content that matters. “
The black girl
The effects of colonialism and the aspiration to go to Europe have been long-standing themes in African cinema – for example in the famous Senegalese film Black Girl of 1966, directed by Ousmane Sembène.
In the film, a Senegalese woman is hired as a nanny by a French middle-class couple. When the couple returns to France, they take the girl with them. At first, she is happy beyond belief – dreaming of Paris and wearing elegant clothes and shoes.
Soon, however, the girl’s excitement turns into grief, as she realizes that her reality in Paris is very different from what she had imagined – that she is mainly confined to the apartment, to cook and to clean.
The film was a critical success. Critics viewed the girl as a symbol of newly independent Senegal: a country dreaming of freedom and prosperity but weighed down by the aftermath of colonialism.
Like migrants risking their lives to reach the coasts of Europe, Assoua suggests that black Africans abandon “our own narrative” and instead turn to Western films. He calls for support for local films on the continent and says that they should rather build on the rich history and culture of each country.
“Instead of asking for a seat at the table, we have to build our own table,” he says.
Olivier Assoua’s first feature film was shot on a low budget in the small Cameroonian town where he was born. As he tells the BBC, the low cost made it possible to make the film – and that’s why his longtime dream should come true when it is released in the coming months.
When Olivier Assoau was 10 years old, his civil servant father bought a VHS player. He was the only family in the neighborhood to own one.
“When we did well in school, my father allowed us to watch a film as a reward. It motivated me to do well in school because I really wanted to watch films,” says Assoua.
And so, a permanent passion began.
At the age of 15, Assoua left Cameroon for France and in 2006 he moved to the United Kingdom.
Years later, he returned to his hometown to embark on a filming journey. He wrote, directed, shot and edited his first feature film, La Vallée des Aigles (“The Eagle’s Nest” is his English title).
“I made the film for £ 5,000 ($ 6,400). If I had paid the market price for each role, I could never have done it,” says Assoua.
“My film The Valley of the Eagles tells the story of two friends in a small town where many young people migrate to larger cities or Europe in search of a better life.
“In this film, the two main characters come across a large sum of money. One of the friends decides to go to Europe with the money, while the other wants to stay in Cameroon and do something.”
The plight of Africans
Assoua considers migration, economic or forced, as an extremely important subject.
“Many Africans die trying to get to Europe,” he says. “We think going to Europe will improve their lives.”
A UN study on migration in 2019, seeking to understand the reasons for migration to Europe, interviewed nearly 2,000 migrants from 39 African countries and found that almost all would make the same perilous journey again despite the danger.
Assoua believes that many of the problems in Africa can be attributed to the legacy of colonialism, which forced different groups in the same country and distorted economic relations, both internally and internationally.
“It will take time to heal and get out of the mind of the colonized subject and rebuild [African countries]”, Said Assoua.
- Fespaco: Africa’s largest film festival celebrates 50 years
- Price of Love director: African film industry “must work together”
The stories that are told are important, he says.
“Part of that [the rebuilding] also creates content that matters. “
The black girl
The effects of colonialism and the aspiration to go to Europe have been long-standing themes in African cinema – for example in the famous Senegalese film Black Girl of 1966, directed by Ousmane Sembène.
In the film, a Senegalese woman is hired as a nanny by a French middle-class couple. When the couple returns to France, they take the girl with them. At first, she is happy beyond belief – dreaming of Paris and wearing elegant clothes and shoes.
Soon, however, the girl’s excitement turns into grief, as she realizes that her reality in Paris is very different from what she had imagined – that she is mainly confined to the apartment, to cook and to clean.
The film was a critical success. Critics viewed the girl as a symbol of newly independent Senegal: a country dreaming of freedom and prosperity but weighed down by the aftermath of colonialism.
Like migrants risking their lives to reach the coasts of Europe, Assoua suggests that black Africans abandon “our own narrative” and instead turn to Western films. He calls for support for local films on the continent and says that they should rather build on the rich history and culture of each country.
“Instead of asking for a seat at the table, we have to build our own table,” he says.