The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman

Filmmaker Rosine Mbakam lived in Cameroon with her mother Bamiléké until she was 27. In her first feature-length documentary, she compares that time in the country to darkness: a place she is familiar with, but can’t fully fathom yet. After studying film in Belgium she, her son and a camera returned to shed light on that darkness. Liberated from her traditional upbringing and a mother herself now, she views the lives of Cameroon women from an entirely new perspective. In conversation with her daughter, mama Bamiléké talks about her arranged marriage, life with a second wife in the family, the endless work at the market and hiding in the jungle from the French occupiers. Despite this suffering, Mbakam discovers a positive: the women’s union with which they help one another in times of need. Mbakam shows these organised women’s faces thereby celebrating their strength. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)