Africa's choices: Cartoons or imams?

The changing role of women is central to Clouds Over Conakry

The star of the award-winning Guinean movie Clouds Over Conakry has told the BBC that the film's success is down to the way it has tackled some of Africa's biggest problems head-on.

Also known as Il va Pleuvoir sur Conakry, the film tackles some of the most controversial subjects in parts of the continent - such as religious extremism, political corruption and honour killings.

After winning the Audience Award at the 2007 Fespaco Film Festival, the film is now going on wider release in Europe. Its French-Guinean star Alex Ogou told BBC World Service's On Screen programme that the plaudits was down to the unflinching way that the problems of African society are portrayed.

"From the beginning, the director [Cheick Fantamady Camara] chose to make no concessions in the subjects he talked about," Ogou said.

"It's possible to talk about all those strong problems and feelings and mix them with a popular movie. I think the audience is very receptive to it."

Manipulation

Clouds Over Conakry centres on Ogou's character BB, a political cartoonist in Guinea who falls in love with his liberal boss's daughter.

However, his world changes when he is told by his ultra-religious father that he is the Chosen One, and has to become Imam of Conakry and chief of the village.

People were so relieved, because they could see in a movie all the things they had inside Alex Ogou

Ogou said that the desire to capture the reality of modern Africa had resulted in something "somewhere between a documentary and a fiction."

"Something we wanted in the film was a positive vision and a positive reality of what exists in Africa nowadays," he added.

"In Africa there is now a middle class, and this is what the film is about - the people and the ideas in the middle. It's really about the grey, not the black or the white."

Camara's main focus is religion, with the film showing two forms of Islam prevalent in Africa - one with traditions of fetishism, the other a fundamentalist attitude with strict adherence to the Koran.

In the film's watershed moment, BB discovers that a "day of rain" prophesised by his father had simply been predicted by a weather forecast.

"Even the highest religion in the city is completely manipulated by the politicians," Ogou said.

"When BB tells his father [about the forecast], it is not to blame him - it is to open his mind."

The film then veers from comedy into dark tragedy, dealing with the issue of honour killings ahead of a shocking ending.

Ogou said that it had received such a strong reaction because the people watching could see so many details of their own lives reflected on screen.

"People were so relieved, because they could see in a movie all the things they had inside," he said.

"I think this film could be a great catalyst for a kind of emancipation."