"This film is an experiment made with some black and white teenagers." "Once it began, the director simply filmed it." "This film is about friendship between blacks and whites." "Denise and Nadine are students in Paris." "They are friends." "But a year ago in Africa they didn't know one another." "In Abidjan, capital of the Ivory Coast" "I asked some students at the Cocody School to make a film showing what friendship could be with no racial complexes." "I don't know what Nadine told you." "I want to film the relationships among students in the senior class." "Denise asked you to come here and" "Nadine and some blacks are coming to see if you have any ideas for the film." "What's the aim of the film?" "To show how Europeans and Africans can live side by side and get along together." "We'll have to show the pros and cons." "I'll have to pick some of you to be racists among the whites and blacks." "We won't get in trouble?" "No, I'll be responsible." "So any trouble will fall on me." "I'll want the racists to talk like racists." "For a film on robbery I'd ask someone to steal even if it's a fake theft, but I'd be an accomplice even if I'm filming." "So it's an amateur movie?" "Why?" "Amateur or professional films don't exist." "It's not a pro film because you don't know whether we can do it or not." "It's an experiment." "Mr. Rouch, is the scenario already written?" "No, we'll write it with your white classmates." "Maybe there'll be some gangsters!" "Instead of mirroring reality our film created a different reality." "It's not a true story." "It was written as we shot it." "The actors made up their lines and reactions." "Spontaneous improvisation was the only rule." "THE HUMAN PYRAMID" "Clean the board and write today's date." "Monday, October 21st, 1959" "I'm Nadine." "I've just arrived in Africa." "It's my first time in a class with Africans." "Denise, I want to study medicine." "Jean-Francois, Engineer." "Quickly." "Paul, Sea captain." "Jacqueline, Entomologist." "Alain, Electronical Engineer." "Jean-Claude, Musicologist." "Denise, Pharmacist." "Bacchus, Philosophy Professor." "Elola, a brilliant politician!" "Raymond." "Dominique, Agriculture." "Amy, Medicine." "Zeneb, Sociologist." "The first day, Alain saw me home." "He's tall, not bad looking and wants to be noticed." "He's our best swimmer." "He's alone." "His dad's in the jungle." "He wants to be an engineer and travel." "Ships, planes, adventure!" "A girl in every port." "He's blasé." "To make love without love is absurd." "On vacation in France, he slept with a girl." "'A sensational Swede', he bragged." "Alain wants to show me Abidjan which for him is a perpetual holiday." "Jean-Claude lives with his parents." "He already has a car and goes to the pool each day." "Dany, Alain, Jacqueline, Quickly and Paul are there." "I'm already part of the gang." "Alain's right." "Abidjan is one long vacation." "An eternal vacation." "I live in a house with a garden by the lagoon." "I'm almost always alone." "Mother stayed in Paris." "Father's often gone in the jungle." "Fortunately, I have friends." "My favorite pals are Alain and Jean-Claude." "Physically I prefer Alain, but I feel moved by Jean-Claude and his lovely eyes." "I don't know why but he helps me in math yet he's dumber than I am." "I guess he likes me." "I like pleasing boys but I won't flirt with him." "I don't like flirting." "Jean-Claude's always gone to school with Africans but doesn't see them outside of class." "He doesn't know why." "It's just not done." "Be quiet." "He's gone for the bulldog." "Keep this up and we'll be in trouble." "Another class where we got nothing done." "Why're the Europeans always acting up?" "Don't they care about graduating?" "Sure, they're all rich kids." "My folks are in Upper Volta." "I stay with friends." "Mama wants me to be a pharmacist." "But maybe I'll be a sociologist." "I like to study primitive civilizations." "But first I have to graduate." "How can I make my friends see they must study?" "Instead, they always copy the noisy white kids." "Baka's a good athlete." "He's a champion in the long jump and in the 100 and 200 meter races." "His father's a coffee grower in Boiké." "He wants to teach philosophy but he'll have to study hard." "Raymond is our musician." "He lives across the lagoon." "I tease him and call him Marbles because of his big eyes." "He calls me Small because we met when I was tiny." "He's a wonderful boy." "I have 2 boyfriends, Dominique and Elola." "Dominique's a bit snobbish but nice." "Elola is a real character." "He wants to be Prime Minister." "He's always telling jokes." "I'm his Dulcinea, he's my Don Quixote." "He chases all the girls." "I like both boys a lot." "Almost all the blacks live in Treichville." "It's a bit dirty and ugly but to us it's everything." "It's all our childhood memories." "All the boys love Nathalie." "She's very pretty, very nice and clerks at 'The Triumph of Elegance'." "She's sparkling and explosive." "Elola!" "Like it?" "What an overbearing bust." "There's no racism in Abidjan, but we keep to ourselves." "Whites aren't good dancers." "We prefer to cha-cha and méringué." "Whites dance only waltzes, tangos and slows for hours and hours." "Nadine said she'd like to go to our dances." "Maybe I'll try to take her some time." "What do you think of our classmates?" "They're not very simpatico especially Nadine, the new one." "She acts like a pin-up." "You don't know her." "She just arrived." "I'm a psychologist, Raymond." "As a psychologist" "I judged her right away." "I disagree." "I think she's nice." "She hardly talks to us." "I like her a lot." "That's love." "And Jean-Claude?" "I don't know him." "He looks like a little thief." "He's very nice." "I think Alain is very nice." "He said he's always lived in Africa." "He seems to know Africans very well." "The guy with the big head?" "A head like a monkey." "I don't trust him at all." "I can't help it." "That's how I am." "I distrust white kids." "I judge them." "It's hard to explain." "It's an African's nature, understand?" "Even so, it's odd." "I've been in class with whites for years." "I'm not friends with any of them." "Why?" "We don't hate each other, we ignore each other." "It's stupid." "At the pool tonight at 6..." "How stupid to be in Africa and know nothing about it." "Yet the Africans are interesting." "Denise, Raymond." "Landry, Baka, Elola." "But I don't know them." "I got an idea I'll suggest to the gang." "I'm tired of our little group." "Always the same old stories." "I have a question." "Why don't we see our black classmates?" "Jacqueline, can't you be Denise's friend?" "Whites have always kept to themselves." "Blacks aren't intelligent, they're too dumb." "I just ignore those guys." "I only say hello to them when I have to." "It's not that I can't stand them, but for me they don't exist." "You're right." "They've been civilized for 100 years at most." "Yet they haven't accomplished a thing." "If they were like us" "Like us in what sense?" "What I mean is they have so little civilization behind them, we can't" "understand them, they can't understand us." "You never even talk with them." "You don't even try to know them." "But we're so much above them." "Look how they settle for living so simply." "50 francs a day and some yuca." "They're so vain, as if they'd invented the world." "What did Mamadou invent?" "The atomic bomb with zebu dung." "And what about the educated ones?" "For example, an educated man's wife is pregnant." "She needs an X-ray, so he says" ""My wife's going to be X-rated!"" "That's just plain dumb." "I agree with Jacqueline." "We shouldn't mix with them." "Nadine, you've only been here how long?" "If you really knew them!" "One boy learned The Coach and the Fly" "La Fontaine's fable, but his version was" ""The fly fly around and start to sting ass." ""He make 'em run to top of hill!" ""On hilltop he sting everybody's ass!"" ""Even priest no pray." "To do that you know why?" ""That fly be no dumb ass."" "Is that smart?" "It's dumb." "So you memorize it?" "By heart." "When I hear something so dumb, I memorize it." "Let's get to know the ones who're worthwhile." "Alain agrees with me." "Nadine's new here and she surely agrees too." "We'll ask those kids to mix with us." "We'll see how they react and see if they want to do anything." "But your ideas are absurd and don't hold water." "Absurd?" "I don't understand you anymore." "You've lived with blacks for years." "What's got into you?" "Are you blind?" "If we say white, the Africans say black." "You put the bread like this." "They put it that way." "Why?" "Just to be contrary." "If they're so dumb, why are they first" "in French?" "They memorize." "They can't develop a subject with a personal outlook." "They're worthless." "I don't agree with you at all." "We're white Europeans with a French education since birth." "We're seniors with kids educated like Africans to the age of 7 and who are seniors too." "They're older than us but it's unimportant." "As of now we're all on an equal level." "In France, some kids get along, some don't." "Nadine just came from there." "She can confirm that." "You mix with kids you get along with, white or black." "Maybe I only just arrived but I'm going to do something." "You're wrong." "Whites must stick together." "We must maintain a certain white brotherhood." "I wish I could appreciate them as Jean-Claude does." "I can't." "It's not my fault." "Look at the 'educated' ones who come back from France with degrees." "To do what?" "To stir up blacks against whites." "But we want what's best for them." "Don't you?" "So nothing can be made of them and whites must keep to themselves." "That's disgusting." "You don't understand." "You say we're here to help but we stand apart." "We must set an example." "To do that, we must do things with them." "You idiots don't understand." "I agree with Jacqueline." "I'm against integration." "What'd you do yesterday?" "I didn't study." "Why?" "Do you expect to graduate?" "I'm sure I will." "And why not?" "Jean-Claude, it'll be your turn next week." "Saved by the bell." "We didn't even get to the formula." "Study your lesson next time." "Denise, me and the gang..." "we'd like to see you kids more often and go out, Africans and Europeans together." "We'd thought of it too." "Yeah?" "I'm glad." "We'll discuss it." "Tomorrow then?" "At the latest." "You heard what Alain said?" "I'm not too hot about the idea." "I'd first like to know if they only want to mix with us just to find our faults and then ridicule us." "They'll say, "We invited the negros."" ""Here's how they acted with us."" "That's what's wrong with you, Elola." "Each time it's a matter of whites you distrust them on the principle that" "we can't get along." "That's not true." "Suddenly wanting to mix with us is strange after being in school together for so long." "Today their suggestion means we should first find out what they're after." "Maybe they never had the courage before because they thought it'd never work." "If Nadine had had the idea, she wouldn't have taken the first step." "You're defending them." "Maybe you like them, but I don't know." "She's a woman." "She's sensitive." "I think we should leave them alone." "I don't hide anything." "I say what I think." "I say friendship between Africans and Europeans is a farce, a sham." "I've known whites since 6th grade." "I've never tried to understand them." "I can't understand them." "Life's impossible between us and them." "That's how we want it." "It'd be a shame otherwise." "Would seeing them change things in class?" "Have you ever seen white kids talk to us except when they want something?" "To do their homework they ask to see yours." "They don't try to understand us." "We should forget about them." "We can be classmates and not be pals." "They can't believe we're good in French." "After a test the prof gives me a grade of 12 out of 20." "I'm glad but I see how they look at me." "They can't get over it." "French is their mother tongue." "They can't bear seeing a boy who began to study French when he was 7 years old get a higher grade than theirs." "Each day they copy my math and English homework." "They do nothing but copy." "Some do, but can you say they're all that way?" "You can't say they're all ungrateful, can you?" "Some are goodhearted." "We could try to get along with them." "Goodhearted or not, as far as they're concerned, I say no once and for all." "I agree with you." "Landry, if everyone's like you, how'll we get anywhere?" "You and I don't belong to the same race." "Yet we still get along fine." "If they say, "We'll never understand the blacks..."" "That's what they say." "And "Trying to wash a negros's head white" ""is a waste of soap."" "You judge all Europeans by those you know." "You shouldn't be completely for or against them." "With some of them there's no hope." "They'll never change." "Others are worthwhile and aren't extremists." "Those who want to mix with the whites can go ahead." "I don't like the idea." "I'll stay as I am." "Unless you mix the two civilizations together it's no good." "Whites have certain principles." "We'll go out with the whites to please Denise." "But we don't guarantee anything." "It's my first time at Nadine's." "She doesn't seem like the others." "She speaks slowly and she just arrived." "She's nice but seems to daydream at times." "Elola calls her an air-conditioned girl." "I was going swimming but decided to wait for you." "My homework made me late." "No big deal." "Yesterday, when I asked you to come by" "I was almost sure you wouldn't." "Why?" "You're the first African to come to my house." "Had to happen one day." "True." "How's your guitar coming along?" "I play mostly African songs." "Want to hear?" "Sure." "We have fun, more than before, but at times Denise is so serious." "She discusses things I hardly understand." "I'd never heard of apartheid before." "Denise, what's apartheid?" "Apartheid is South Africa's policy of segregation." "It's odd Nadine's never heard of it." "I'm sure most French know nothing about it." "Many blacks and whites think things elsewhere are like here." "They've no idea that people in some parts of the world are treated like animals segregated, unable to have a home because they're black." "I can't forget our conversation." "At least it's not that way here." "But there is racism in Abidjan." "I saw Nathalie who was upset over a clerk who had used the familiar 'tu' form with her because she's a black." "Listen, Nathalie, it's not serious." "We'll talk it over with our friends." "Denise told Elola about it." "They'll give you some good advice." "I say it's really racial discrimination." "I think they say 'tu' out of habit, without thinking." "They don't do it on purpose to be nasty." "Maybe not nasty, but it embarrasses people." "They don't realize it." "They should be made to realize it." "Put up a sign for the silly cows." "Always use the formal 'vous' form with whomever enters even to a dog." "Nadine, for example, if you meet someone someone you don't know and who doesn't know you." "like a white man who says 'tu' to you you'd think he was ill-mannered." "You'd be shocked just as we are." "We think it's bad manners." "But that's how..." "Well, it's complicated." "Saying 'tu' to someone you don't know is racist." "Especially to a black." "They think we're inferior." "Times are changing." "The whites have to change." "Usually the whites who say 'tu' to blacks are lower class whites." "You mean white trash." "I think all the salesgirls here are racists." "They're steeped in the old principles of the colonial plantation owners who came here and kept the Africans in line with a whip." "That doesn't mean they're right." "Those guys are bad for Africa and should be made to leave." "Now's the time to do something." "Today." "Not everyone thinks the way you do." "If they did, things would be fine." "If they see us together all the time they'll see whites and blacks can get along." "We'll be an example for them." "Read this poem as best as you can." "It's called The Human Pyramid." "As a child I opened my arms to purity." "'Twas but a flutter in my eternal skies." "A loving heart beating in a subdued chest." "In love with love I could not fall." "The Light blinds me yet I save enough to watch the night nightly, all nights." "All virgins differ." "I only dream of one." "Black-smocked she sits in class before me." "When she turns to ask me for an answer her innocent eyes so confuse me that in pity she slips her arms around my neck." "Then she leaves and goes aboard a ship." "We're almost strangers." "So young is she her kiss does not surprise me." "When she is ill" "I hold her hand in mine til death, til I awake." "I race to meet her, fearing to arrive after other thoughts have stolen me from myself." "The world nearly ended and we didn't know our love." "Slowly and caressingly she searches for my lips." "That night I thought to bring her to the day." "'Tis ever the same vow, same youth, same eyes same arms around my neck same caress and revelation but never the same woman." "The cards say I shall meet her but until I know her, let us love Love." "The Human Pyramid." "That's the day it all began when poetry entered our hearts like a fine poison." "Poetry and love" "And Nadine went riding with Baka." "They say it'll be in the exam." "I don't like the new exam at all." "It'll be really hard." "When I borrowed the bike my pals said I'm already in love with you." "They're dumb." "A bike ride's not very romantic." "What do you think of Afro-European marriage?" "I'm not against it but" "I know I wouldn't" "marry an African." "It could happen." "If I fall in love with a black, we'll see, but..." "Love is blind." "I know." "Alain discusses philosophy?" "No, he wants to be an engineer and travel." "He takes me down to the beached ship." "He's captain of a beached ship?" "Yes, it's wonderful and almost frightening." "He's both too old and too young." "On board he's different." "Then I like Alain." "Why?" "He forgets all about flirting and becomes a little boy again." "Sweeping the air with your vast skirts you're a ship heading out to sea loaded with stars and sailing away in a slow rhythm, lazy and sweet." "On your thick neck and broad shoulders your head rides in state." "Calm and triumphant you go your way, majestic child." "What's he think?" "Surely not that I'm in this boat because of him." "I'm afraid he calls it a romantic outing." "He mustn't think we're more than just friends." "You must know that boys of his age think only of flirting." "A girl smiles and they're sure they've made a catch." "Then we can't simply be friends?" "I can't be nice to a boy without" "Nadine, going boating isn't wrong, but your attitude toward the boys is ambiguous." "You're too kind." "I don't want anything between us except to be friends and talk freely" "without thinking of anything else." "Jean-Claude." "I think she likes him better." "Though she won't admit it, he attracts her." "It's none of my business, but" "I don't want her to ridicule my friends." "I'd like to bring you here often, but not to flirt." "Just to see my hideaway no one knows." "My hideaway is our secret." "No one knows it." "I'll tell no one." "The forest has a bird whose song makes you blush a clock that can't chime a bog with a nest of white chard a descending cathedral, a climbing arch an abandoned car in the brush that runs down the beribboned path" "and some actors in costume on the road at the edge of the forest." "If you're hungry or thirsty, someone chases you." "I want to talk about a girl I'm crazy for." "Nathalie." "Could you introduce me?" "Sorry, friend, but I go for her too." "But between pals" "I don't go for that pal stuff." "Never on your life." "I won't do you that favor." "I can't find the word, but you're acting like a slob." "Me?" "I only want a favor." "I don't want to do it." "I didn't at all know you like Nathalie." "You should, the way I hang around her." "You hang around her, Nadine" "Denise and all of them." "My heart's divided." "I'm an African." "You know from natural science that a heart has ventricles and auricles." "So with two of each I can put one girl in each, making four in all." "Can I have some room in one of them?" "Gladly." "Thanks." "But not in the auricle where Nathalie is." "What we could do is let each of us smooth talk Nathalie and may the best man win." "A bet?" "If I lose, I'll bust your skull." "No." "A bottle of champagne to drink with Nathalie." "Dated her yet?" "Last night." "Bastard." "You slept with her." "You're crazy." "Not at all." "But still you took her out." "What about the bet?" "I'm not interested because" "I made it in view of dating Nathalie." "But my feelings have changed completely." "I'd have won the bet but" "I don't care about it now." "Such affectation." "Oh, my God." "Please!" "Before you speak take this handkerchief and cover those breasts that that wound my sight." "Such things harm the soul and arouse guilt." "You are tempted easily by the flesh." "I am not so rapidly brought to lust." "To see you nude from head to toe would not tempt me." "Speak more modestly or I shall leave at once." "Use your hands less and watch your diction." "I'm tired of this." "She sleeps, Death weeps" "Rose, nose." "Trees, breeze." "The new-wave black poets." "No, Hugo." "Who said Victor Hugo wasn't an African?" "I'm going to invite them to a party." "It's never been done before." "It's a first." "Have to start some time." "Who'll we ask?" "The guys from the club and Denise." "What about Quickly?" "Won't he cause trouble?" "Certainly not." "Then ask him." "Their ideas aren't ours but they're okay." "Their opinions make it hard." "We have to convince them." "Who else?" "Jean-Francois?" "Yes, he's harmless." "Should I ask" "Jacqueline?" "Why not?" "She's so hostile." "If she is, we have to do something." "She's so stubborn." "No, she's intelligent, but..." "Her grades are better than ours." "So I ask her?" "Certainly." "Everyone in our class." "A swim?" "Gladly." "The party's tomorrow night at 8:30." "Remember to pick up Nathalie because she doesn't know where I live." "And at the party who's going to dance with Denise?" "It'll be me." "Why?" "Why do you want to?" "I think it's nice to dance with her." "You enjoy dancing with Denise?" "Is she an object?" "No." "For me, it's different." "How?" "My feelings for her are noble, so stay away." "There'll be a fight." "I wear a size 10 shoe." "I'm a size 7 1/2." "Be careful." "Watch out." "Ever since you arrived" "I've liked you." "Know why?" "Because you're not like the others." "I think you try to understand Africans very well." "That's why I'm drawn to you." "Annoyed?" "Not at all." "I like you." "What do you think of me?" "You're very nice." "A charming contrast." "What?" "Black and white." "Charming." "We're in Africa." "They're flirting." "That changes the whole atmosphere." "What happened?" "Jean-Claude and Alain had a fight." "Pretty stupid." "Why didn't you discourage them?" "Firstly, out of laziness, and it's also a way to get to know people by letting them court me." "I don't like you to act that way." "It's not being serious." "I have an idea." "Let's go out tonight and walk around town." "Good idea." "Look, an electronic watch." "Gen. de Gaulle." "When I was seven, I left my parents to live with my uncle." "I've lived in Abidjan since 1948." "Your father died?" "Yes, in '54." "You live with your uncle?" "Yes, alone, with him." "I have some friends in school." "That's all." "Pals among the boys." "And girls?" "No girls." "I've never had one." "I've never really liked one." "Dad's always away in the jungle." "He lets me do as I please." "I do whatever I want to." "I can stay out as late as I want." "I never see him." "If I can really trust you..." "I'm sleepy." "One morning a man and a fine lady cried out in the public square" ""Friends, I want her to be queen!"" ""I want to be queen!" she laughed." "They spoke of revelations, trials they had endured." "And they were kings for a morning." "Crimson hangings adorned the houses and they strolled in the palm garden." "What are you doing?" "I feel sad." "What's wrong?" "Maybe it's the party." "Because of Nadine?" "The fight was stupid but I was upset." "There's something no one understands." "That's what makes me sad." "There's a deserted house behind my place." "My piano and guitar are in it." "I go there when I'm low." "I took Nadine there." "Three or four days later, she flirts with me at the party then goes off with Baka and dances with Alain." "And everyone thinks she has a crush on this one or that one." "She's very sweet." "It's easy to confide in her." "I'm sure she'll betray those secrets." "Don't be mad at her." "She doesn't do it on purpose." "She doesn't realize it." "She does lots of harm without knowing it." "Where will it end?" "Elola and Landry didn't want to go out with you." "We had to insist." "If they see this, they'll say they were right." ""We should never mix with Europeans."" "They always confuse friendship and girls." "That's why I'm so sorry." "This could separate us." "Nadine wanted us to mix, but she'll separate us." "I don't think so." "In three weeks, it'll be forgotten." "I think so." "She'll make up for it." "Go on." "Cigarette?" "Makin' out with blacks?" "That's all we needed." "Don't tell me you were a saint at that party." "You're mean." "Don't you see what you're doing, Nadine?" "An arrangement between whites and blacks?" "You believe that?" "Sleep with 'em and see how you're treated." "Like a slut ready for the Paris streets." "Go home." "You can't see what you're doing here." "Not for one minute have you ever thought there's nothing but friendship between us." "They chase after her and she says" ""No whites for me." "Only Africans."" "You're disgusting." "And what did you do?" "I had fun with my friends." "And flirted with everyone." "That's normal." "So is being a friend." "Friendship among blacks and whites can't exist, Nadine." "Idiot." "Idiot yourself." "You're doing us harm." "You're only one in a thousand." "Only the Africans count." "Now how will we be respected at school?" "They'll treat all us girls like you." "Take my advice." "Go back to Paris." "We don't need you." "He talked about Nadine all morning." "Know what he did?" "He knows" "I'm a friend of Nadine's." "I saw him flirt with her at the party." "But he's a good pal of mine." "I don't think that's right." "I'd be ashamed." "You never mentioned Nadine." "I didn't need to, you knew." "I thought you were a pal." "But does she truly like you?" "After what she told me I don't think so." "What'd she say?" "A lot." "I don't need to tell you." "It's personal." "Between her and me." "She flirted with someone else?" "With me." "With you?" "Honestly?" "I told the truth." "She said she likes you?" "She told me so." "I wanted to discuss that with Nadine herself." "She's nice to everyone and it causes trouble." "I'm good in English but math is new to me." "Physics is boring." "I'll go into math and physics later." "Like the party?" "Yes." "Really?" "And your friends?" "They said it was wonderful." "I didn't think so." "We had fun." "Something wasn't right." "I don't know." "A kind of rivalry..." "I want to tell you something." "Your behavior disappointed me." "First, Jean-Claude and Alain fought over you." "Now it's Raymond and Bacchus." "They had an argument over you because each one said he'd won you." "I said I'd ask you about it." "You've got to decide." "I didn't make any advances." "No, but you accepted their advances." "You encourage them." "That's what I criticize you for." "You can't like them all to the same degree?" "Yes, they're all very good friends." "I never led any of them on." "Raymond says you're going to marry him later." "No." "We talked about his family his friends, his childhood, his village." "I told him about mine and we're good friends, that's all." "You're sure?" "Of course." "Good." "But be careful from now on." "Yes, I will." "What ya doin'?" "Buying bananas." "I saw Nadine and asked her how she feels about you." "I'm very sorry, but she said she has no special feelings for you and considers you both as good friends." "We can't love her?" "You can, but it's best you forget her." "I'll pick up the papers in one minute." "Landry, collect the papers." "Yes, sir." "Class dismissed." "Were you able to do it?" ""More violence in South Africa" ""During Day of Mourning."" "The Abidjan paper doesn't mention it." "300 or 400 dead plus many people in prison." "The major Ivory Coast newspaper should put that on the front page." "Even news here like Treichville marching on the Assembly wasn't in the paper." "Look at South Africa." "People fighting against their inferiority." "The only solution there is to park them on reservations like cattle." "They need ID for travel." "A number and a pass." "That's why they were protesting." "They're right." "What's the Ivory Coast government doing?" "Not one word in the paper." "The Ivory Coast is represented at the United Nations by France." "The UN intends to examine the problem." "There's a session on it today." "I say it's unthinkable for the French and English representatives..." "They said it was abominable for such things to occur in the 20th century." "But they had reservations because it's an internal" "South African affair." "That's normal." "It's unthinkable." "The Community is made up of blacks." "All the territories are black." "I think France should have taken a firm stand and protested as a matter of principle." "It's normal for France not to take a stand." "Why?" "The Algerian war." "If France said it's not an internal matter then other countries would have to intervene in Algeria." "They could have made a statement of principle." "A lot happens at the UN and" "South Africa won't be pushed around." "Is what's happening there a question of skin color?" "The English and Dutch are very religious." "At least, those who left home for America or South Africa are very religious." "They base their ideas on the Biblical story of Ham, the son of Noah." "I think he hit his father or insulted him." "So Noah put a curse on him." "The black Africans are Ham's descendants." "So it's a cursed race." "They say the black race is a cursed race." "The minorities who came here formed groups having material superiority." "They grouped together, which is normal." "When you travel, you're glad to find other French." "They did the same and formed groups as a defense." "It's perfectly normal, but they did a lot of harm." "The Europeans used the principle of" "ruling by dividing." "The English!" "Even the French." "Not the French." "The French found several peoples in Africa." "Their solution was to divide the country up like Konakry in Guinea." "Before you worry about South Africa look at the Ivory Coast." "We're interested in the French community not in what happens in England." "Maybe he knows enough about his own country more than you know about France." "South Africa and Ivory Coast are very different." "The talks began again at the film's screening where each discovered his or her unknown image." "Thus fiction became a reality." "It is the chronicle of a group of friends with its unique aspects." "Dominique's snobbisheness," "Landry's logic," "Elola's oratorical exercises," "Raymond's romanticism," "Nadine's cruel, clumsy affection," "Baka's disappointed hopes," "Jean-Claude's anger and melancholy," "Nathalie's love of life," "Denise's gentle philosophy." "Now everything is possible." "Why not go all the way with the experiment?" "Why not test their friendship with a tragedy a fiction that once filmed becomes reality freeing those who believe too much in their roles." "Let's go to the ship." "Don't dance on my ship." "It's bad luck." "Go to hell." "We'll see about that." "Alain, come back!" "It's dumb." "An accident?" "Suicide?" "Who's responsible?" "An explanation is inevitable." "Jean-Claude says it's Alain's fault." "My friends say it's Jean-Claude's and Nadine's." "I know everything is over." "We'll become strangers as in previous years." "Seeing them say such nasty things" "I wonder if they ever were friends." "Nadine!" "Should I blame her or try to understand her?" "Is it her fault she needs affection?" "I don't know anymore." "What's the book?" "Aimez-vous Brahms by Sagan." "It's not amusing." "What's wrong?" "I came to say goodbye." "I'm leaving in two days." "I didn't expect to see you." "I came because I wish you'd see me off." "I don't know if the others will come." "We'll see." "I'm sorry for what happened." "So am I, much more than you are." "I warned you not to flirt with" "Alain, Jean-Claude, Baka and Raymond." "You knew it would cause trouble." "You should have thought of that." "It's sort of my fault, but what else could I do?" "You know you shouldn't have flirted with" "one after another." "I didn't." "It went to their heads." "I didn't flirt at all." "I don't know what you call that." "Well, yes." "I'm responsible, but it's a bit of my fault, but I didn't do it on purpose." "Elola and Landry didn't want to mix with you." "I managed to convince them." "You know what they think now." "Anyway, I'm leaving now." "I hope you'll forget all that and all be good friends again." "Once on the plane, you won't even think of us." "You'll make new friends but we'll still be here." "I have to go, it's late." "I'm going to bed." "Of course Alain died only in the film." "Now it's time to separate those who for several weeks have lived in and for the film." "Those who remain feel a bit lost." "For Landry, Elola, Dominique, Baka" "Denise, Jean-Claude and Raymond it's the end of their vacation." "I'll wait for Jean-Claude and Raymond." "Jean-Claude, Raymond." "You coming?" "No matter whether the story is plausible no matter the camera or the mic or the director or whether a film was born or never existed." "More important is what happened around the camera." "Something did occur in the decors and childish, poetic loves and fake catastrophes." "Ten black and white boys and girls learned to love, get angry and know each other." "What several years in class never accomplished an improvised film did." "For these young Africans and Europeans racism no longer makes any sense." "The film ends here but the story isn't over." "It's so much simpler and more complicated, but it's up to all of us to write it." "Now we're parting, but the film made friends of us all." "There is an African proverb that says" ""If you know a man's qualities you only know him." ""If you know his faults, you love him.""