The theme of Faat Kine, directed by Ousmane Sembene is definitely; strength of women. The main character is a woman that has experienced a life filled with obstacles and harsh treatment. She has two children with two different men and as a result of her first pregnancy she was expelled from school as well her father disowning her. Her whole life has been characterized by men that have tried to control, cheat and overrule her. She has overcome most of her hardship, bought a house and raised two smart children. Faat Kine is a business woman that will not accept anyone telling her how to live her life or run her business. She is a woman of tradition as well as a woman of modern days. She is portrayed as the transition that is taking place between colonial era and modern day.
One aspect that is hard to miss in this movie is how Sembene has chosen to use the outfits as symbols of belief and status. The outfits are very beautiful and colorful, they represent what has been and what will be and how the transition interacts. Faat Kine wears a modernized outfit to work, as to symbolize her status and the progression that is taking place. Her work requires a strong will, intelligence and knowledge of business in the future all of which she possesses. The white coat she wears can mean many things, some say like a doctor but I would say status. The color tells us that she has status but using white can also indicate pureness of heart. Her giving alms to the blind girls shows that she is a humble and charitable woman, but when she rejects the poor woman any alms it indicates that she is not naïve to whom is in need. Behind her desk, with her colorful clothes and white coat, Faat Kine is a woman of power.
Other outfits that represent the transition and progress to modern day can be seen by Faat Kines children; her daughter, Aby, wears only modern clothes and represent her thoughts and ideas that are modern as well. She is the only woman in Kine’s life that wears modern clothes and she represents the part of the country that has already progressed and is waiting for the rest to follow. Aby’s brother, Djib, wears traditional clothes but with a modern cap that he sometimes wears the other way around. This represents how he has one foot in traditional times and the other foot in modern times. He is transition personified. Faat Kine’s mother wears only traditional clothes and she is a woman of colonial era that still lives the way she is used to.
The beauty of this movie is that even though these times are very different they can still coincide without any major problems. Faat Kine clearly shows that she is a woman that will not forget her past and it will be in her heart but she will not stay there, instead she will progress with her society. Sembene did a great job in using the clothes as symbols to the changes that time brings with it to a society and how clothes can say so much about a person. He shows that stereotypes are to be cast away and to welcome change instead of staying in the past. Don’t forget your past, let it teach you and guide you but look ahead and work with your society and progress as individual as well as community.
One aspect that is hard to miss in this movie is how Sembene has chosen to use the outfits as symbols of belief and status. The outfits are very beautiful and colorful, they represent what has been and what will be and how the transition interacts. Faat Kine wears a modernized outfit to work, as to symbolize her status and the progression that is taking place. Her work requires a strong will, intelligence and knowledge of business in the future all of which she possesses. The white coat she wears can mean many things, some say like a doctor but I would say status. The color tells us that she has status but using white can also indicate pureness of heart. Her giving alms to the blind girls shows that she is a humble and charitable woman, but when she rejects the poor woman any alms it indicates that she is not naïve to whom is in need. Behind her desk, with her colorful clothes and white coat, Faat Kine is a woman of power.
Other outfits that represent the transition and progress to modern day can be seen by Faat Kines children; her daughter, Aby, wears only modern clothes and represent her thoughts and ideas that are modern as well. She is the only woman in Kine’s life that wears modern clothes and she represents the part of the country that has already progressed and is waiting for the rest to follow. Aby’s brother, Djib, wears traditional clothes but with a modern cap that he sometimes wears the other way around. This represents how he has one foot in traditional times and the other foot in modern times. He is transition personified. Faat Kine’s mother wears only traditional clothes and she is a woman of colonial era that still lives the way she is used to.
The beauty of this movie is that even though these times are very different they can still coincide without any major problems. Faat Kine clearly shows that she is a woman that will not forget her past and it will be in her heart but she will not stay there, instead she will progress with her society. Sembene did a great job in using the clothes as symbols to the changes that time brings with it to a society and how clothes can say so much about a person. He shows that stereotypes are to be cast away and to welcome change instead of staying in the past. Don’t forget your past, let it teach you and guide you but look ahead and work with your society and progress as individual as well as community.
1 comment:
With regard to the attire that the characters were dreessed in, I agree on your analysis of what the culture has been and what it will become. Sembene uses the youth in the film to convey a message of a new and ever changing culture. A culture that can change but no weaken. We can see that the son and the daughter have changed their attire, now the daughter being of similar values of what Kine represented in her youth illustrates a gard heavily focused on the "western" influences on fashion, whereas the son uses his past experiences in his country to furnish a new outlook on his culture and what he intends on bringing to it. The changes are subtle yet recognizable. Wearing his hat backwards for example is way in which he can express his individuality while keeping the current cultural attire in tact.
Sembene purposely puts these markers in the story to add more depth to his characters without leaving the boundaries that tend to be extended with regard to film.
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