Cameroon proudly presents the award winning Ariane Astrid Atodji, whose film KOUNDI AND THE NATIONAL THURSDAY, one of the highlights of the Cambridge African Film Festival. The film will not be screened in Cameroon, where there are no picturehouses – and even if there were, a documentary would struggle to draw an audience. Certainly the villagers of Koundi have little need for escapism – they live in a sylvan idyll, running a modest forestry operation which is the main source of income for most families. Atodji’s film follows them to the next level as they plan a cacao plantation: a more sustainable prospect for their livelihood. KOUNDI is a film which seeks to counteract the persistent image of Africa as a country which seeks our pity and charity – a place caught up in famine and ethnic conflict. Atodji shows us the simple beauty of everyday life in eastern Cameroon, where the melody of foresters’ calls echo through the trees, and little children sweep red dust from the porches in the village. Tradition and technology work in harmony, and there is a feeling of gentle self-sufficiency and a verdant future.

On National Thursday, a monthly event, the whole village works to clear and plant communal cacao fields. Atodji’s approach is touching and yet unsentimental in its honest insight into village life. The people of Koundi are articulate and unselfconscious – the atmosphere of the community gives the audience a feeling of intimacy and involvement, whether we are watching a village meeting or a baby’s bathtime. The camaraderie and lively humour of Koundi is humbling and inspirational – we are seeing a side of Africa that is too often drowned out by a media focus on poverty and want. The children are industrious, fun-loving and well-behaved.  Men and women work alongside one another in apparent social equality. The forest industry is “temporary and fleeting”, warns the schoolteacher to his class.  They are taught to understand and appreciate the value of study, and the valuable contribution they can make to the future of Koundi. It’s a very different world to a workshy Cambridge suburbanite, and has a lot to teach its UK audience about co-operation, economics and a real sense of democracy.

In the spring of this year, the Centre Pompidou in Paris played host to the 33rd Festival International Des Films Documentaries. The event saw fewer African films than usual, and the Festival director expressed concern that African film production is waning. The Cambridge African Film Festival surely deserves our support in redressing the balance.

KOUNDI AND THE NATIONAL THURSDAY is screened at Cambridge Arts Picturehouse on 8th November at 18.30.  Book tickets here.