Les maîtres fous (1955)

Original title

Les Maîtres fous

Directed by

Jean Rouch

Genre

ethnographic film, docufiction

Country

France

Runtime

36 min

Rating

6.2 of 10 from 68 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This film shows a religious ceremony in colonial West Africa where participants enter trances and take on the identities of colonial authorities. It captures the ritual with a direct style that feels chaotic and intense.

chaoticrawunsettlingtrance-likevisceralobservationalintenseritualistic

What happens

Les maîtres fous (French: [le mɛːtʁ fu]; "The Mad Masters") is a 1955 short film directed by Jean Rouch, a well-known French film director and ethnologist. It is a docufiction, his first ethnofiction, a genre he is considered to have created. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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