OKA!

US, 2011, 105 minutes, Colour.

Kris Marshall, Isaach De Bankole, Will Yun Lee, Peter Reigert

Directed by Lavinia Currier.

The short synopsis for this film runs: The story of Louis Sarno, an American ethno-musicologist who lived among the Bayaka Pygmies in Central Africa for 25 years.

The screenplay was, in fact, written by the director, a documentary filmmaker, with the collaboration of Louis Sarno himself.

British Kris Marshall plays Sarno, originally from New Jersey, seen in the early part of the film with some kind of terminal illness, forbidden to go back to Central Africa by his doctor, Peter Reigert, but the bulk of the film showing Sarno and his life and work in Central Africa with the Bayaka pygmy people.

The characterisation of Sarno is rather minimal. There is his distress in defiance of the doctor. There is his life in Africa, friendship with the local Pygmies, clashes with the local Mayor, Isaach De Bankole, who is trying to modernise his area, and welcoming foreigners into hunting elephants. He is opposed to Sarno. On the other hand, Sarno is welcomed by the local people. There are some incidents, his friendship with the local wise man, his antagonism towards the Mayor and the Chinese intent on shooting an elephant. He is strong on the environment.

But, the film is a blend of fiction and documentary, the documentary aspects of Sarno’s work predominating. We see him recording all kinds of local sounds, the sounds of the people, the music, the range of instruments, building up an extraordinary ethnological resource, published and considered one of the key books on Central Africa.

While the feature film aspect of the film (and Oka means “listen”) the more documentary aspects, the close-ups of Sarno and his work, the recordings, the flora and fauna of this part of Africa, the potential dangers are of more interest.