A Trip to My Country

A movie diary-cum-essay, this follows Jean-Marie Teno, as he travels from Yaoundé, capital of Cameroon, where he received a very European high school education, back to the village he lived in until the age of eleven. As he retraces past journeys, interviewing old acquaintances and strangers, Teno muses on how things have changed (or not), noting broken promises and interrogating notions of tropical 'modernity'. He recalls how the colonial system encouraged his generation to reject their elders' values. The strategy was so successful that a special festival was established to get townsfolk back to the villages - and, in time, it was inevitably transformed into something more commercial. Witty, tender, insightful, illuminating and deeply engaged (and engaging) film-making.