Finzan = A dance for heroes

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DVD / video

Title:	Finzan = A dance for heroes
Editors:	Sissoko, Cheikh Oumar Sanogo, Diarrah
Year:	1990
Language:	bam
Series:	Library of African cinema
City of publisher:	San Francisco, CA
Publisher:	California Newsreel
Geographic term:	Mali
Subjects:	rural society female circumcision marriage women videos (form) feature films (form)
Abstract:	In Finzan, Cheick Oumar Sissoko has skilfully crafted a film which raises one of the most important issues of African rural life, the status of women, in a style accessible to every villager. Finzan tells the story of two women's rebellion. Nanyuma, a young widow, defies her brother-in-law, the village fool, when he asserts his traditional right to 'inherit' her. Fili, a young woman sent from the city by her conservative father, is brutally 'circumcised' by village women, scandalized by her refusal to submit to this ancient ritual. Sissoko weaves these two stories together into a painfully realistic picture of village society in Mali, tragically unable to free itself from the past. [Abstract reproduced from video]