I love Jean Rouch, and I’ve never seen this film by him before. It’s spectacular: stomach-churning and mind-blowing. At the center of the film is a group of Ghanaian workers who are members of the Hauka, a sect that has a very particular way of dealing with the nervous disorders caused by colonization. I thought about Frantz Fanon immediately, of course, but the thing is: he came later.
It’s sad that Rouch is more or less obscure today, limited to the visual anthro classrooms: his observations on the mental processing of the post-colonial are necessary, as well as his portrayal of the relationships of the reversed other.
Mad Masters (Les maîtres fous), 1955
Director: Jean Rouch
