A young man is banished to La MACA, a prison deep in the Ivorian forest. According to tradition, as a newcomer, he will have to entertain all the other prisoners the entire night during the next full moon. If they don’t listen to him until sunrise, he will have to die. Nervously, he starts telling the story of legendary rebel Zama King.
Telling stories to live and survive. Ivorian director Philippe Lacôte, who has a background in radio plays, knows what he is talking about and has already proven his storytelling in his debut feature Run that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. For his second feature, Lacôte desperately wanted to film something from the West-African perspective: he combines ancient African corporal storytelling traditions, with more classic western dramaturgy; authentic realism with African magical thoughts. And these mix surprisingly well. The two storylines interweave more and more in a fascinating interplay between storyteller and listener, and a dangerous combination of dance, fight, song, poetry and prose.
