Koundi et le jeudi national
Koundi & the National Thursday
Ariane Astrid Atodji
With its 1200 inhabitants, Koundi is one of the larger villages in the province of East Cameroon. Its residents secure their existence from its most valuable raw material, timber. They founded a cooperative and were granted state approval for forestry land use. A school has now been built, and a medical care centre was set up. Apart from French, the language of the former colonial power, the tribal language Maka is widely spoken. The community functions because, apart from modern achievements, archaic structures have also retained their values. This means that the nurse, for example, can only succeed in her work if she cooperates with the local herbal healers.
In case their forestry contract is one day no longer renewed, people in Koundi want to be armed for the future: a National Tuesday is declared so that a cocoa plantation can be set up on communal land.
In calm images, Ariane Atodji presents a charming village portrait in Koundi et le Jeudi National that goes far beyond conventional Africa clichées.
Awards for ›Koundi et le jeudi national‹
Muhr AsiaAfrica Award, Doc Film Competition, Dubai International Film Festival 2010
Film Programme If You Don’t Fight Back
Ariane Astrid Atodji
Ariane Astrid Atodji was born in 1980 in Nguelemendouga, raised in Cameroon and took a bachelor‘s degree in Theatre Arts at the University of Yaoundé. She participated in filmworkshops at the Goethe Institute in Cameroon and since 2008 has studied at the LN International Filmschool in Yaoundé.
Films by Ariane Astrid Atodji
Thérèse – How Do You Get By? 2009 | Kam (La Guenon) 2009 | Le Segnieur Aquarius Fiction 2009
