A quiet evening, around 8pm. The chirping of the crickets. The barking of dogs echoing off the stone houses. A mother quietly putting her daughter to bed, a daughter who doesn't know that, a few moments later, she will be deprived of her father forever. Bandits come in, smashing the door; machete in hand, they are looking for "the money", the unfortunate nickname given to people afflicted with albinism. They believe that the limbs and organs of albinos bring wealth and prosperity; I will spare you the rest.

"In some African countries, the complete skeleton of an albino can be sold for up to $75,000." With $75,000, director Moïse Togo explores the terror that many albinos face in Africa, a condition that goes far beyond insidious colorism to instead give way to extreme violence, often in broad daylight and in front of multiple onlookers. Rather than clearly demonstrating this violence, the director takes the gamble of evoking it through the testimonies of people for whom such events took place before their eyes. The impressionistic results are no less powerful; aided by an excellent haunting soundtrack as well as digital images superimposed on the narratives, bringing a certain dreamlike quality to the stories, we are given the opportunity to get a glimpse of the ordeal not only experienced by the victims, but also by those around them who are robbed of loved ones who, from one minute to the next, are left with only a phantom pain.

Jean-François Vaudrin
Head of acquisitions at Tënk
and film critic

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