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Le Silence de la Foret (The Forest) (2003)
2003. 93 minutes. Cameroon / Central African Republic / Gabon. Directors: Bassek ba Kobhio and Didier Ouénangaré
In Diaka, French and Sango with English subtitles. Le silence de la forêt is a film about the difficulty for even the most well-intentioned person to know and respect another culture. In this case, the problem is so acute that there is even heated debate over what to call that “other.” The subtitles in the film use the familiar word “pygmies,” a relatively pejorative European term; the Bantu or villagers’ expression for the same group, Babingas, carries similar negative connotations. These highly specialized, tropical rainforest hunter-gatherers should perhaps be called by their own ethnonym, Aka, MoAka (sing.) and BaAka (pl.)