Rahmatou Keïta was born in Niger. After studying philosophy and linguistics in Paris, she started her career in France and made a name for herself as a journalist for European TV channels. In 1993, she decided to devote her time to her true passions: writing and directing. Keïta went on to direct documentary films, as well as create the TV series “Femmes d’Afrique” (“Women from Africa”). A committed militant of the African cause, Keïta is a founding member of the Panafrican Association for Culture (ASPAC) and takes an active part in the dialogue of cultures and civilizations.
“The Wedding Ring” will premiere at the 2016 BFI London Film Festival on October 14.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
RK: “The Wedding Ring” (“Zin’naariya!”) celebrates peace and harmony, beauty, refinement, and generosity. “Zin’naariya!” is a love story, an intense exciting love story which takes place in a very ancient city in a Sahelian aristocratic family, where people are [incredibly] shy.
Tiyaa (Magaajyia Silberfeld), recently returned home to the Sultanate of Zinder after completing her degree abroad, is waiting for her fiancé to make a formal proposal of marriage. He too comes from a prestigious family and her parents cannot reject such an eligible young man.
Life is pleasant and peaceful but time passes and the handsome suitor is slow to come. While awaiting the mystical promise of a new moon, Tiyaa has the opportunity to discover in her surroundings other women whose love stories, marriage, desertion, or divorce tell of the relationship between men and women in the Sahelian society.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
RK: Our stories are unknown. Hidden behind our visible or invisible high walls, nobody knows them, apart from ourselves. I would like to tell these stories and show our beauty, which is unique. We are nations to whom dialogue and research of harmony are of the utmost importance for us and we cultivate inner and exterior beauty and elegance.
I would like to share our way of life with the entire world. I want to tell the truth, my truth. I want to tell stories about women in love, voluptuous women, and silent and modest women. Women who do and undo plots, who however are victims of love, just as men, because one never wins against love.
“The Wedding Ring” is a period in a life, a sketch. It is a pretext to talk about cultures, civilizations, and a unique world: mine. [The film depicts] styles of life that will soon and quickly disappear. So before we, too, disappear I have decided to capture on films those who are the closest to me. I have chosen to emphasize emotion, feeling, and expectation. In so doing, I depict a rhythm — our rhythm of life suspended to the trees branches with exchanged glances, and moments of silence.
I want to pay tribute to beauty, to age-long and sumptuous architecture and costumes. I try to survive all the cliché which is killing us. I want to share the beauty and the generosity of Africa with the whole world and “I wish I could share all the love I have in my heart.”
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
RK: I want them to think “What a beauty, class, refinement, and sincerity — a piece of eternity, depth, elegance, sophistication! I’ve never seen something like that before! A real trip.”
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
RK: The challenge was neither writing the movie nor [making the] project. My life will not be enough to make all the movies I would like to do, with stories and scripts most beautiful as each other. My biggest challenge was to find the funds that would allow me to tell stories off the beaten tracks. I am not scornful nor [condescending]! I’m not “à la mode” — I am in the history and I’m struggling for my own survival, the survival of those precious and unique cultures that have made me.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
RK: I wrote the script in 2006… Then I started looking for co-productions and/or funds. As my country, Niger, has no cinema industry, I tried in European countries, the ones which have co-productions with our countries. It didn’t work. So I start thinking that my script might not be good, even if I loved it.
I was about to throw my script in my wastebasket under my desk when I learned, during FESPACO 2009, that Algeria proposed to participate in financing four feature films and that they were asking for scripts written by Africans directors. I then pulled out my script and I sent it to Algiers. The jury found it original and very beautiful and it was decided unanimously by the jury and I got the funds. It gave me courage and boundless energy. So I went to conquer the world!
Then I traveled a lot, through many African countries. I chose countries where I knew for sure and deeply that there is a political commitment to culture and creativity, countries where the leaders show by their actions, their speeches, and their commitments that they are activists for African Renaissance, African survival, African cultures. Countries like Algeria, Congo-Brazaville, Uganda, Niger, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Kenya, Egypt — I tried to convince them. I brandished the success of Algeria everywhere I went and it worked: finally, I can say that I directed an African union movie. Thanks, Africa!
W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at LFF?
RK: First, it’s a triumph. My triumph. Second, it is its European Premiere. For the first time in my almost 10 years of work, [my movie] will be shown in Europe. It is gorgeous. It is wonderful to share my world with the whole world. The film had its world premiere at TIFF. LFF is chic and open-minded— BFI National Archive cares for one of the greatest collections of film in the world. I like history, heritage, and transmission. I’m sure that I’ll be very comfortable at LFF.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
RK: Miles Davis told me one day when I was very young,‘‘You are unique. You have a lot to tell us. Above all, be yourself, never give up, and do not let someone decide for you.’’
The worst advice? I never remember the bad things.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
RK: None. I haven’t reached the stage to give advice to someone else. I myself need advice.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
RK: Ava DuVernay is my favorite woman director. I love her determination, political commitments, perseverance, and artistic sense.
W&H: Have you seen opportunities for women filmmakers increase over the last year due to the increased attention paid to the issue?
RK: No, I don’t see any opportunity. The Western cultures are very heavy [and slow] to move. Just a touch, time to time, as the Western cultures know how to camouflage segregation. Whatever segregation is in Africa, women and men, we are all in the same boat: The challenge is to build our own film industries and to finally tell our own stories.
W&H: If someone asked you what you thought needed to be done to get women more opportunities to direct, what would be your answer?
RK: It is necessary that women take control, get organized, and show another worldview: theirs. It requires that women take their place, through our organizations, as Women and Hollywood and Film Fatales have done and continue to do during major festivals like TIFF, LFF, and Sundance.
