Mambar Pierrette
Rosine Mbakam
It’s the rainy season and the new school year is about to begin. From dawn ’til dusk, Mambar Pierette sews school uniforms and exquisite dresses for special occasions in her tiny shop in a slum of Douala (Cameroon). Mambar is not just a seamstress, she is also a trusted confidante to her customers. She knows all about money and romantic troubles, family matters and the problems of emigrating and returning home. But she also has plenty of worries of her own: flooding in her home and shop, an absent husband, an ailing mother, three children who need school supplies, and there’s never enough money. She has to overcome setbacks and disasters time and time again. She endures her situation with stoic calm, and refuses to put up with patriarchal oppression. Her hard-earned independence and the sense of community in her neighbourhood give her strength.
Drawing on her acclaimed documentary Chez jolie coiffure (2018) about the African diaspora in a hairdressing salon in Brussels, Rosine Mbakam has produced her feature film debut Mambar Pierrette with the same documentary patience and a cast of largely non-professional actors. The fictionalised experiences of her charismatic protagonist – played by Mbakam’s cousin Pierrette Aboheu and filmed by Fiona Braillon – sensitively and empathetically reflect the arduous everyday life in Cameroon.
Guest: Rosine Mbakam
In cooperation with the Afrika Film Festival Köln
Rosine Mbakam
Born in Cameroon, Rosine Mbakam discovered film at a young age thanks to the Italian NGO COE. In Douala, she worked as an editor, director and presenter at STV. She graduated from the Belgian film school INSAS with her award-winning short fiction film Tu seras mon allie. In 2014, she founded Tândor Productions in Belgium together with Geoffroy Cernaix, and four years later, Tândor Films in Cameroon, launching Caravane Cinéma to distribute African films in Cameroon. In 2021, she co-directed Prisme about the portrayal of Black skin in cinema. Her feature film debut Mambar Pierette screened in the international competition of IFFF in 2023. The New Yorker described her as one of the most important contemporary documentary filmmakers.
Films by Rosine Mbakam (selection)
Mambar Pierette 2023 |Prisme 2021 |Les prières de Delphine 2021 |La majorité invisible 2020 | Chez jolie coiffure 2018 |Les deux visages d’une femme Bamiléké 2017| Tu seras mon allie 2012
Awards for The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman:
First Award Documentary – Festival London Feminist
Award of the Flemish UNESCO commission – Afrika Film Festival
First Award Documentary – Do Pao International Documentary Film Festival (PT)
Special Mention of the Jury – Festival Ecrans Noirs (CM)
Best Documentary First Work & Special Mention young public – FIDBA (AG)
Special Mention in the feature length documentaries – Festival du film documentaire de Saint-Louis (FR)
Special Mention of the Jury – Filter à tout prix (BE)
