N – THE MADNESS OF REASON

Belgium, 2014, 102 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Peter Kruger.

This is an arty and artful documentary, focusing on the life of Raymond Borremans, 1906 – 1988. He was a Frenchman who left Europe in the 1920s and made Africa his home. After exploring a great deal of Africa, he settled in Ivory Coast as his second home.

Flemish director, Peter Kruger, has explored Borremans’ life, not merely a biography, but a study and a portrait.

The film employs a double narrative, the French narrative by veteran actor, Michael Lonsdale, the African commentary and narrative by Wendyam some Adele girl. The French narrative offers information but raises many questions, many issues, many of them quite abstract and seemingly portentous (with a touch of the pretentious-sounding).

However, there are beautiful vistas of several African countries and of the Ivory Coast.

Borremans studied butterflies and other elements of nature, and these are visualised. He also wrote songs, one of which is presented in a luxury hotel lounge with a local singer and ensemble. He also wrote an encyclopaedia of the Ivory Coast and there are details of his compiling it, writing it and publication eventually in his later life.

All the way through, there are ruminations about the meaning of life and life in the context of the African continent.

Of the, there is a focus on the history of Ivory Coast, its establishment and its prosperity, the exploitation and the poverty. Symbolic of this is the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace at Yamoussoukro. It is a metre higher than St Peter’s in Rome on which it is based. The narrative asks questions of the Ivory Coast President who created this – and his seated memorial is in the foyer of the basilica.

This leads to the realities of the civil wars at the beginning of the 21st century, the sides, refugees from other countries, security borders, the destruction, the effect on the people and their poverty.

It also leads to considerations of global sameness, capitalism and consumerism in the 21st century, as well as the hedonism that has developed everywhere, clubs – and pornography.

The portrait of Borremans is interesting and challenging, the film is very interesting as a portrait of Ivory Coast as seen by an expatriate of the 20th century.