Ezra
Nigeria
|
2007
|
Color
|
102 min
This directory compiles the glossaries from all editions of Cines del Sur: eleven already held and the twelfth currently underway. It serves as a living memory of the festival, its films, guests, sections, and spaces for reflection on the cinemas of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Arab world. Here you can trace the evolution of its programming, rediscover filmmakers, and follow the thematic threads that have defined Cines del Sur's identity as a meeting point for cultures, perspectives, and ways of understanding cinema from the Global South.
It is estimated that in the year 2000, approximately 300,000 children served as soldiers in armed conflicts in over thirty countries worldwide. Nearly 120,000 of these children participated in conflicts that took place on the African continent. Ezra tells a fictional story based on the conflict in Sierra Leone. The central event is an atrocious incident: an attack on a village, carried out by rebels under the influence of drugs. The puzzle of what happened that night is reconstructed through the testimonies of three witnesses: Ezra, a former child soldier; his sister Onitcha, who is mute; and Cynthia, also a former child soldier and Ezra's companion. What is supposed to be an act of reconciliation soon turns into a trial, as Onitcha believes it is the right time to reveal a secret she had previously hidden from her brother.
Technical Details
Direction:
Newton I Aduaka
Cinematography:
Carlos Arango de Montis
Music:
Nicolas Baby
Language:
English
Production:
Michel Loro, Gorune Aprikian
Art Direction:
Yann Dury
Sound:
Alioune Mbow, Guillaume Valeix
Subtitles:
Spanish and French
Screenplay:
Newton I Aduaka, Alain-Michel Blanc
Editing:
Sébastien Touta
Cast:
Mamoudu Turay Kamara (Ezra), Mariame N’Diaye (Onitcha), Mamusu Kallon (Mariam), Richard Gant (Mac Mondale), Mercy Ojelade (Cynthia), Emile Abossolo-Mbo (Rufus), Merveille Lukeba (Moses), Abubakarr Karim Sawaneh (Mischak), Ilario Bisi-Pedro (Ezekiel), Cleophas Kabasiita (Judge Naim), Wale Ojo (Black Jesus), Yao Yankey Yankson (Terminator)
Director
Newton I Aduaka
Born in Eastern Nigeria in 1966. His family moved to Lagos in 1970 after the Biafran War. In 1985, Newton went to England to study engineering. However, he discovered cinema and decided to enroll at the London International Film School, graduating in 1990. In 1997, he founded Granite Film Works. In 2001, he debuted with Rage, a film that would become a milestone in British cinema history. It was the first fully independently funded film made by a Black director and released nationally. The film was critically acclaimed and won the following awards: Best New Director at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, the Oumarou Ganda Award at the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, and the Jeunesse Award at the Vues D’Afrique Festival in Montreal, among others. In 2001-2002, the Cinéfondation of the Cannes Film Festival awarded him a Resident Director scholarship in Paris. Between 2005 and 2007, he co-wrote, directed, and produced Ezra, his first non-independently funded work, for Arte France.
