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All screenings are on Thursdays 7-9 p.m. in 14E-310.
Projection is in high-resolution video unless otherwise indicated.
Film Comment named Yeelen "the best African film ever made." Set during the powerful Mali Empire of the 13th century, it may remind viewers of 2001: A Space Odyssey . But in Cissé's distinctly African version of "science fiction," time is circular, so the future also inevitably lies in the distant past. Yeelen tells the story of Nianankoro, a young warrior destined to destroy a corrupt older elite, the secret komo cult, and with it his father, and, necessarily, himself. The film represents a highly imaginative contemporary response to the seminal West African quest myth, the Sundjata epic.