This weekend, the African Film Festival returns to Washington University, offering two days packed with cinema from African filmmakers and about the sundry experiences of the continent's people. Friday night’s tentpole is the animated feature Aya of Yop City, a charming tale of the awkward connections that bind a neighborhood together in 1970s Ivory Coast.
Aya marks the directorial debut of Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie, who adapted the film from their graphic novel series. The titular Aya (Aïssa Maïga) is an outspoken older teenager in Yopougon, a.k.a Yop City, a working class town in Ivory Coast's then-capital Abidjan. The story unfolds through Aya's eyes, but it often concerns the tragicomical tribulations of her colorful extended family of blood relations and close friends. Although Aya is studious and forward-thinking, she still enjoys dancing the night away with her girls, Bintou (Tella Kpomahou) and Adjoua (Tatiana Rojo). Unfortunately, the local men are mostly swaggering lunkheads, while the trio’s parents are focused on more mundane, worrisome realities.
Aya’s tale is best described as an intertwined cluster of soap opera mini-melodramas, all of which unfold languidly and mostly without actual climaxes. While this lends the story a shapeless quality, it also establishes a sense of slice-of-life realism. The textured setting and even the exaggerated characters seem to extend outside the frame; Abouet and Oubrerie's Yop City has a history, and it will keep on rolling long after the end credits. This naturalistic quality harmonizes with Oubrerie’s visual style, which combines evocative city backgrounds with expressive character designs influenced by Japanese and French animation. While Aya concludes abruptly, it does not disappoint. Observing the dysfunctional folk of Yop City soldier on through misunderstandings and mishaps is a distinctive pleasure. It’s strictly a bonus that Aya also whets the appetite for more West African cinema about ordinary lives.
Aya in Yop City screens on Friday, March 28 at 7 p.m. in Room 100 of Washington University’s Brown Hall. It will be preceded by the Nigerian short film, Unspoken. As with all films at the African Film Festival, admission is free.
