Reou-Takh

Reou-Takh (Big City), the name given to Dakar by rural Senegalese, is a film directed by Mahama Johnson Traoré and released in 1972.

Synopsis
A young African-American man arrives in Dakar in search of a fantasized African continent. He is surprised to find a Westernized, depersonalized country.

Plot
An Air Afrique plane lands in Dakar airport, and among the passengers is John, an African-American man. During an interview, he is asked, “Do you think you will find in Senegal what you were looking for in Africa?”. He answers affirmatively then leaves the airport in a Renault 4 with someone else. The credits roll against a panoramic view of Dakar, followed by a neutral commentary on cityscapes, reminiscing about Dakar's bygone “golden days,” steeped in camaraderie and chivalry - the Senegal of “free, noble, and courageous men.” However, today, the anonymous crowds no longer have time to fraternize or humanize. According to the voice-over, John discerns no illusions of “trinkets fit for tourists” or mere folkloric spectacles; it's authenticity that beckons him to Africa. He encounters the same strains of blues as back home. “When will these melodies embrace an 'Afro-African' essence?” he wonders. The voice-over, illustrated by images, evokes misery, hunger, sickness in the ghettos, in the slums that John discovers to the tune of blues. Is it inevitable? The youth become unemployed. The beggars are numerous. Upon seeing the mosques, John realizes that, despite everything, “man continues to devote to his creator a deep veneration close to mysticism. This fanaticism, combined with fatalism, renders it possible to endure suffering.”

John sets sail to Gorée where “millions of slaves” left to the new world. He meets a man who agrees to inform him that “it was on this shore that white slave traders and Negro kings met” to barter. John is shocked by the word, and the message is backed up by a historical re-enactment by the sea. He proceeds with his exploration, the melodic strains of the kora accompanying him, while children join his journey. Eventually, he arrives at the House of Slaves, where a guide provides him with a tour. A new historical reconstruction shows the harsh treatment of chained slaves. A slave-owner rapes a young woman. A group of slaves rebels, but is quickly subdued.

John continues his journey while the voice-over mentions that Gorée is also the birthplace of Blaise Diagne, who demanded self-determination. John gathers a couple of young people from Dakar and asks them about their occupation in his stammering French: one is a student and the other a teacher-poet. They discuss the inequality of social classes, for which political authorities, who reproduce colonial society, are responsible. According to the teacher, “the political power favors the preservation of foreign cultures”. As for the student, "the mentality of people must change" because they only appreciate what comes from the West and adopt its customs, even African-American ones. “If there are any exceptions, they exist among the supposedly elite youth,” adds the teacher. “The entire system must change,” concludes the student. Freedom must be preserved, adds the commentator in a panoramic view of the city, for “is the true purpose of mankind not mankind itself?”

Credits
 Spelling and contents according to the credits - note that the title is spelled without a hyphen while it is found in all the literature discussing the film :
 * Director: Mahama Traore
 * 1972, Senegal, 44'25, 16 mm, colors, French
 * Cinematography: Baidy Sow, assisted by Papa Taphsir Thiam
 * Sound: Jules Diagne
 * Editing: Bernard Lefèvre
 * Assistants: Cheikh Ngaïdo Ba, Lamine Diallo, Nioukhoussa Traoré, Abdoulaye Doumbia, Cheik Dieng Matar
 * Script Contributor: Pathé Diagne
 * Voice-over by Yves Diagne narrated by Emmanuel Gomes
 * Production manager: Ousmane N'Diaye
 * Production: Sunu Films Production, Dakar

Cast

 * Alain Christian Plennet: John
 * N'DACK Gueye
 * Meduna Faye
 * Khady Fall
 * Diobaye Dodo Diop

Reception
Reou-Takh translates into Wolof as ville-bâtiments or city of buildings. The film is a self-production with non-professional actors. Its incisive, critical tone led to the film being banned upon its release in Senegal in 1972. Thus, it was only screened at universities and festivals, in particular at the Cinémathèque québécoise in 1973, and as part of the retrospective Senegal: Fifteen Years of an African Cinema, 1962-1977 at the Museum of Modern Art on February 26 and 27, 1978. The westernization of the elites and the impoverishment of the low-income neighborhoods are considered direct consequences of the triangular trade mentioned in Gorée, but also of the politicians' herd mentality. Mahama Johnson Traoré expresses his disagreement during a debate when another film director suggests that, considering the risk of a ban in the country, it is necessary to produce a film with an international perspective. His top priority is the Senegalese public.

If the film has been “widely distributed abroad, it is against his will”. The government has “granted Johnson Traoré a wonderful gift: a completely normal film is now on demand everywhere. Naturally, people want to see the first Senegalese film to be completely banned in its country”.

The film has been banned until changes are made according to the demands of the authorities. For what displeased the authorities was that the hero seems to have visited only the marginal districts of Dakar, and that he only has contact with opponents of the regime. However, Paulin Soumanou Vieyra adds, “everything they say is true”.

“My protagonist finds that the notions of authenticity and tutti quanti are just for show, that they have no direct connection with real Black African culture,” Mahama Johnson Traoré tells Guy Hennebelle. He adds that this film was the reason why he began to question the notion of an arthouse film: “I realized that we had to find not only a new language, but a new cinema ethic”. As for the fact that Africans in the film are accomplices of white slave traders, he replies: “the elites are often accomplices of foreign domination, which they help in its enterprise of depersonalization”.

The film skillfully blends documentary, fiction, and direct cinema whereas the jazz, rumba and blues music gives unity to the film's various scenes, and the dynamic camerawork and rhythmic editing support the narrative. However, Paulin Soumanou Vieyra thinks that the film “is too superficial in its approach to issues in Senegal” and that “it lacks technical quality, which is particularly required in a work that aims to present a contradictory thesis”.

Mahama Johnson Traoré invites Moussa Touré to the movie set “to see how things are going”. From film to film, Touré worked as his lighting assistant, then lighting technician, then finally head lighting technician.