Etee is a young, headstrong woman living in a rural Cameroonian village, where the residents still adhere to the old traditions, and the social structure is rigidly patriarchal. When the village chief tries to forcibly marry Etee against her will, she rebuffs him, and becomes a hero to the other girls in the village. But her father is ashamed and kicks her out of the house, despite her mother's protests. Etee decides to move to the city to complete her education and escape exploitation. All she encounters in the city, however, is more of the same. Etee is subjected to the salacious advances of older men, and is even at one point raped, but she defies the odds and carves out for herself an independent life. Director Jean-Pierre Dikongue-Pipa brings the world of his protagonist to life with a light touch, breezy montage, and an upbeat soundtrack. Though The Price of Freedom deals with some heavy subject matter, Dikongue-Pipa never resorts to melodrama, and refuses to turn Etee into a victim, she is always a fighter. The Price of Freedom is a brave film, that rages with a righteous morality. Cinema has brought us so many male characters that closely resemble actual people, but very few women who resemble actual women; Dikongue-Pipa bucks this trend with his depiction of Etee. She is resourceful, brilliant, and beautiful, but she is never sexualized, or made to look exotic for being independent, or, even when tragedy strikes, turned into a martyr. There are many people like her whom I have met and know on a personal level, from friends to family to lovers. With The Price of Freedom, Dikongue-Pipa has made what is perhaps one of the essential feminist films, and by avoiding the pitfalls of melodrama, he goes further than directors like Mizoguchi had in the past, because it is very apparent that he tried not just to sympathize with the experiences of women, but to empathize, to as best he could from a male perspective, put himself into their shoes. And there is something miraculous about a film that is able not so much to recreate reality, but to expand upon it, and tap into the ebbs and flows of life. If it has any faults, it is that Dikongue-Pipa's impressionist style of storytelling sometimes becomes confusing, adding and dropping characters somewhat at random without fully introducing them, but this is such a small issue that it is almost irrelevant. The Price of Freedom is a miracle, one that is waiting to be discovered and embraced by the cinematic community, and receive the attention it fully deserves.
Comments
Post a Comment