Multimedia Collection

Brightness (Yeelen)

VHS
105 minutes
1987
PN1997 .Y431 1987

Yeelen tells the story of Nianankoro, a young warrior destined to destroy a corrupt older society, the secret Komo cult, and with it his father, and, inevitably, himself. The film follows him on a quest across arid Bambara, Fulani and Dogon lands, and through a cross-section of West African cultures and folklore.

The climactic flash of light which floods the screen at the film's end ushers in a new purified world order. It also can't help but remind contemporary viewers of a nuclear holocaust or ecological catastrophe as well as of the promise of renewal which ends 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Yeelen enables viewers not just to understand but to experience a traditional African way of seeing the world. Its innovative narrative style captures the Bambara belief in time as circular, not linear, always returning to that initial "brightness" which creates the world.

Description Disclaimer

Motion Pictures

Contact Us: (541) 737-2538,