Le Spectre de Boko Haram

Cyrielle Raingou follows a group of children from a village that has been the victim of Boko Haram violence and is now protected by soldiers. Falta, whose father was killed, is studious and hard-working, while Ibrahim and his older brother Mohamad try to balance their childlike energy with a traumatic past.

The documentary filmmaker places herself at child level, where the cohabitation of the trivial and the magical has something dizzying. Cyrielle Raingou's delicate, unobtrusive observation allows her to restore a sense of gentleness and tranquility, at a time when rarely an off-screen shot in cinema has been so cruel. A masterpiece.

Pascale Ramonda / France / pascale@pascaleramonda.com