al'lèèssi... an African actress
A film by Rahmatou Keïta

The film shows two series of images: images from one day in Zalika Souley's daily life and images of her career as an actress.
It is based on the confrontation between scenes of her daily life and extracts from the films in wich she acted.

The directors - Mustapha Alassan, Mahaman Bakabé, Mustapha Diop, and other technicians, as Boubacar Souna, talk about this period.

Mahaman Bakabé

Interviews are not conventional: they are spontaneous and shot on location while the speakers carry on their usual occupations. They correspond to precise moments of the day: for example, Mustapha Alassan, the film director, is seen in his lab-hut working at his animated films while talking about the young girl whom he helped to establish as an actress. On the other hand, we also see him in his hotel in the bush at night when he talks about the decline of cinema from Niger because this second interview comes in the nocturnal part of the film and this location as well as the nocturnal ambiance correspond to what is said and emphasize the idea of disillusion and ending.

- Sound, light and prayers give rhythm to this long day (from dawn to night) punctuated by:

- the five daily prayers indicating the passing of time,

- Sahelian sounds with the call of the muezzin, the city uproar, children's screams and laughter, the hammering of the pestle and echoes of rejoicing, lights from the soft morning sunlight in a blue sky to the violent glare of the sun in a dazzlingly white sky, the orange and purple late afternoon and dusk light and finally at night, the glimmering lights... a fade over which gives a dream like impression and punctuates the flashbacks on Zaliika's past as an actress.