Far from Anger

Many people died in the village of Ziglo, in western Côte d’Ivoire, during the 2011 civil war. Having waited too long for state justice, Josiane, known as Maman Jo, a native woman who had lost several members of her family, decided to take the village’s destiny into her own hands by creating a space for women to speak out.

Here, the question is one of crimes and surviving these crimes. Not immediate survival, but long-term survival, of flesh and memories. Doubtless, survival for freedom. How can one self-mend and regain freedom in Zéaglo? This Côte d’Ivoire village has had to survive the Duékoué massacre which occurred during the 2010-2011 post-electoral crisis. Since then, the village has been a place of suffering in which many of its inhabitants remain trapped. The victims and their abusers live side by side, many are in deep mourning and words are no longer exchanged. For Josiane, the spoken word is what will bring peace, but she thinks this will only happen if people come together. The film follows her from hut to hut as she collects testimonies. Horrifically violent stories pour out from a multitude of diminished lives. The women speak of themselves like ghosts, divided by their belonging to different communities and united by their silence and solitude. So, from out of the remains of a house burnt down during the killings, a meeting house is built. Ghosts are not abandoned, they become lived in. From a series of individual stories towards a broader framework where everyone has their seat, the movement of the film is one of a coming-together. The stories converge on this house, where a restorative justice is established that does not preach unconditional forgiveness but rather seeks the recognition of wrongs. From isolated stories to shared narratives, the spoken word creates a common space, and presence fills the house.  No looking back at history, no political frescos or facts, what matters is simply being there physically and politically: listening, overcoming separations and trying to mend.
 
Clémence Arrivé Guezengar