On the Disnet + platform, the singer’s film has just been put online, and in the light of the movement born of the death of George Floyd, the feature film has a multiplied resonance.
Beyonce’s film is a tale that takes up the theme of the “Lion King”, by staging a young boy engaged in an initiatory journey. (Photo Robyn Beck / AFP)
AFP
American singer Beyoncé’s film “Black Is King” was posted on the Disney + platform on Friday. Praised for his celebration of black culture, he is also criticized for his distanced view of Africa.
The feature film accompanies the album “The Lion King: The Gift”, released in July 2019 and inspired by the film “The Lion King”, a live-action version of the Disney classic.
It is a tale that takes up the theme of the “Lion King”, by featuring a young boy engaged in an initiatory journey.
Beyoncé has turned it into an ambitious aesthetic project that has received critical acclaim. Jude Dry of IndieWire paid homage to a film “saturated with stunning visual effects”.
In the light of the movement born of the death of George Floyd, the project, entirely focused on the black heritage, has a multiplied resonance.
“’Black Is King’ is a sometimes penetrating presentation of African artists whose work blends brilliantly with that of Americans with roots on the continent,” wrote John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter.
Beyoncé has invited the Nigerian singer Yemi Alade, the South African Busiswa or the Ghanaian artist Shatta Wale, who are here much more visible than on the album, dominated by the American stars.
“Africa does not have only one culture”
But some have criticized the “wakandafication” operated by “Queen Bey”, a reference to Wakanda, an imaginary kingdom located in Africa where the film and the comic strip “Black Panther” take place.
The Houston-born artist has, according to his detractors, delivered a distorted and amalgamated vision of Africa.
“Can anyone tell Beyoncé that Africa is not just culture and that we are normal people?” Kaye Vuitton, a Nigerian tweeted.
“There are more urgent things to do than get angry with an African American woman who uses her means to interrogate, explore and artistically interpret a way to fill the gaps in her identity,” wrote in the British daily ” The Independent ”, Timeka Smith, racial equality activist.
These gaps, she says, are the bonds between African Americans and their past in Africa, from which they have been cut and which they seek to re-establish.
(AFP/NXP)
–
