{"id":921,"date":"2013-11-29T14:32:18","date_gmt":"2013-11-29T20:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackworldcinema.net\/blog\/?p=921"},"modified":"2025-06-03T00:33:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T05:33:28","slug":"thursday-jan-2-the-battle-of-tabato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackworldcinema.net\/blog\/2013\/11\/29\/thursday-jan-2-the-battle-of-tabato\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, Jan 2, The Battle of Tabato, with iNgoma African Music Videos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"battleTabat\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Battle of Tabato,\u00a0with iNgoma African Music Videos
\nJan 2, 7pm – $6 admission
\nChatham 14, Theaters
\n210 W 87th Street Chicago, IL<\/p>\n

THE BATTLE OF TABATO
\n2013,PORTUGAL \/ GUINEA-BISSAU, 83 minutes
\nDirector: Joao Viana
\nLanguage: Madinka with English Subtitles<\/p>\n

Preceding this program will be a 15 min screening of the iNgoma African Music Videos program<\/em>
\nAn allegorical meditation on the torments of present-day Guinea-Bissau, The Battle of Tabat\u00f4 begins with preparations for a wedding ceremony and ends with a battle between the natural and spiritual worlds; the forces of good and evil.<\/p>\n

Fatu (Fatu Djebat\u00e9) and Idrissa (Mamadu Baio), singer of the Supercamarimba band, are to be married in Tabat\u00f4, Idrissa’s native village, which is famous for its griots and its extraordinary music tradition. Fatu’s father, Baio (Mutar Djebat\u00e9), a former warrior who left the country after its war of independence, has arrived to give his daughter away and make peace with his past. His return jolts lugubrious memories and resurrects sinister ghosts of violence. Idrissa, personifying hopeful righteousness, has to ward off these ghosts for good.<\/p>\n

In this first feature from director Jo\u00e3o Viana, sound is as thoroughly charged with significance as is image. Viana uses instruments and objects to convey his characters’ psychological states: wooden balafons, metal negalins, pumpkin koras, and goatskin dundunb\u00e1s accompany Idrissa and his drive to do right; cellphone and radio accompany Fatu and highlight her ability to mediate between characters as well as the traditional and contemporary worlds; RPG and machine-gun rounds are associated with Baio, the violence he has perpetrated, and his antiquated mentality. We follow the parallel journeys of Fatu and Baio from Bolama to Tabat\u00f4, and Idrissa’s from Tabat\u00f4 to Bafat\u00e0 to give a radio interview. An eerie tension mounts in tandem with Idrissa’s fearless attempt to save his beloved’s father from the abyss of war.