Otomo

In the course of an altercation with Stuttgart police in the summer of
1989, a knife-wielding Cameroonian immigrant named Frederic Otomo killed
two cops and left three wounded. He himself was shot dead by a survivor. In
the aftermath of the incident, the Stuttgart media went on an
anti-immigrant witch-hunt. In a discussion period following the showing of
"Otomo" at the 8th Annual New York Contemporary African Disapora Film
Festival, youthful director Frieder Schlaich explained that he was so
appalled by Stuttgart's racist hysteria that he resolved to make a film
that would try to show Otomo as a real human being and not a monster.
Basing himself on the bare factual outlines of Otomo's modest life, he
succeeds admirably.

As Frederic Otomo, Ivory Coast-born actor Isaach de Bankole virtually
becomes the character, a stoical hard-working man who lives in a hostel
with almost no amenities except for some postcards tacked to the wall.
Besides his black skin, nothing seems to mark him as an African except a
few cowrie shells kept in a pouch and tossed each morning to tell his fate,
plus a small cellophane bag filled with earth from his native village to
remind him of home.

The fateful summer day begins at a day labor recruitment office where he is
the only African. The other men are ill-clad East Europeans who have fled
their own countries for the same reason as Otomo: lack of work. When Otomo
is told by the recruiters that they can't use him because he lacks the
proper papers, he leaves for the long subway trip home. In the course of
the train ride, an overly officious conductor informs him that his ticket
is not valid to cross into the next zone and that he will have to exit at
the next station, far from his hostel. When Otomo insists--correctly--that
his ticket is valid, the conductor accuses him of interference and summons
the police. In order to avoid arrest and deportation, the undocumented
worker lunges for the door as the train enters the station. When the
conductor blockades the door with his body, Otomo punches him and flees.

From this point, the film becomes a manhunt as Stuttgart police, two of
whom are major characters in the film, pursue Otomo as he wanders the
streets of Stuttgart looking for a way out of town. One of the cops seems
relatively enlightened, while his partner is a simple man who kills time on
patrol singing foolish rap songs of his own invention. Neither cop seems
quite willing to go along with the fear and loathing that motivate the
manhunt. At the station the cops speak openly about the dangerous "nigger"
from the jungle even though a search of his papers reveals that Otomo
admires the German people and that his father was an officer in the
Cameroon army supporting the German effort in WWI. One cop says that such
loyalty is always appreciated--just look at the hard work of the German
Shepherd dogs they keep at the station.

Eventually Otomo finds himself sitting on the edge of a river staring
forlornly at the water, trying to figure out how to save himself. Out of
nowhere a little blond-haired girl approaches him with a flower. The image
evokes the scene in Frankenstein when a similarly innocent girl approaches
the monster at a lakeside. Clearly the director intended the effect to be
the same. Since German society views the African as a monster on the loose,
we might expect him to strangle the little girl and throw her in the water.

In a surprising and morally uplifting turn in the story--but one devoid of
didacticism--Otomo joins forces with the little girl and her 46 year old
grandmother. The woman is very recognizably the kind of German who might
have joined the Greens in their early days, although she is not political.
She is just a "hippy" who not only is sympathetic to the less fortunate,
but fascinated with all things African. After warming up to him, she tells
Otomo that she is taking African dance lessons twice a week. Let's give him
daddy's shoes, the little girl cries out when she notices his ragged
sandals. At that point, the three march off to the little girl's parents'
apartment where they drink coffee, dance to the music of Youssou N'Dour and
try to figure out a way to raise money to help him flee Stuttgart.

Eventually the two cops stumble across the group and the film enters its
bloody denouement, one that will leave you feeling both angry and sorrowful.

I saw "Otomo" immediately following a group of interesting short subjects,
all but one of which evoked the same sense of misery and helplessness
facing the African people. A seventeen minute South African drama titled
"Aces" depicts the failure of a man who has just been released from a 9
year prison stretch for murder to escape the cycle of violence that led him
there in the first place. Made in Chad, "Feminine Dilemma" is a graphic and
disturbing 22 minute documentary about female circumcision. "Kauna's Way"
is a 45 minute Nambian drama about the competition between high school
girls over a scholarship to study in the USA. One of the girls, who is
poverty-stricken, is literally forced to prostitute herself with the
principal in order to win the award.

The only upbeat film was "Thomas Sankara" which depicted the life and death
of the revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso. Against all of the odds put
before him by imperialism and reactionary traditional institutions, Sankara
was determined to make a place in the sun for Africa's desperately poor.
Although his tenure was short-lived, his memory lingers on as demonstrated
by this excellent 26 minute documentary made by Congolese film-makers.

The festival is being shown through December 10th in NYC, including Dec.
3rd and 4th showings of "Otomo". For a schedule, go to:
http://www.africanfilm.com/festival/


Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org