Summaries

Cameroonian filmmaker Bassek ba Kobhio provides a fascinating revisionist perspective on Albert Schweitzer, Noble Peace Prize winner and secular saint of the colonial era. Like FRANTZ FANON: BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASK, this film begins to rewrite the history of colonialism from the point of view of the colonized. LE GRAND BLANC DE LAMBARÉNÉ is not, however, a facile exercise in iconoclasm but rather a deeply-felt lament for a missed opportunity, for a cross-cultural encounter between Africa and Europe which never happened. The film reveals that the ultimate tragedy of colonialism may have been its refusal to see and value the colonized as autonomous, creative human beings. The film's epigraph, ironically, is a famous remark by Schweitzer himself: "All we can do is allow others to discover us, as we discover them."

Details

Keywords
  • absurdism
  • africa
  • colonialism
  • albert schweitzer character
  • cameroonian
Genres
  • Drama
  • Biography
Release date Apr 25, 1995
Motion Picture Rating (MPA) Not Rated
Countries of origin France Cameroon Gabon
Language French
Production companies Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC) Canal+ Productions Ce.Na.Ci.

Box office

Tech specs

Runtime 1h 34m
Color Color
Sound mix Stereo
Aspect ratio

Synopsis

All Filters