Sia, le rêve du python (Sia, the Myth of the Python) (2001)
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60% of critics liked it
(5 reviews) -
75% of users liked it
(23 ratings)
Every year the most beautiful girl will be sacrificed to the Python God. But what really happens is that all the priests rape her, and then murder her, so that she cannot tell that the python god does not exist. When a girl named Sia is the next to be sacrificed, she hides in the house of the… More Every year the most beautiful girl will be sacrificed to the Python God. But what really happens is that all the priests rape her, and then murder her, so that she cannot tell that the python god does not exist. When a girl named Sia is the next to be sacrificed, she hides in the house of the village idiot, a man who goes around shouting hyper-aggressive criticisms against everything. Sia is found by the soldiers and the village idiot is murdered. But the army commander had for some time prepared a revolt against the emperor. Now he murders the emperor and all the priests, thereby saving Sia from being raped. His plan is to make Sia's boyfriend the new emperor, an appointment to be justified by the lie that that boy had murdered the python god. At the same time Sia should be empress. However, Sia refuses to lie about what happened. Therefore she is declared a lunatic. In turn she develops exactly the same kind of behaviour as the village idiot had shown.
- Directed By
- Dani Kouyaté
- Written By
- Moussa Diagana
- Genres
- Art House & International, Drama
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Jan 1, 2002 Wide
Critic Reviews
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V.A. Musetto, New York Post
As directed by Dani Kouyate of Burkina Faso, Sia lacks visual flair. But Kouyate elicits strong performances from his cast, and he delivers a powerful commentary on how governments lie, no matter who runs them.
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Dave Kehr, New York Times
The stripped-down approach does give the film a certain timeless quality, but the measured pace and lack of dramatic inflection can also seem tedious.
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Elizabeth Zimmer, Village Voice
The subtitled costume drama is set in a remote African empire before cell phones, guns, and the internal combustion engine, but the politics that thump through it are as timely as tomorrow.
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Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Colorful and deceptively buoyant until it suddenly pulls the rug out from under you, Burkinabe filmmaker Dani Kouyate's reworking of a folk story whose roots go back to 7th-century oral traditions is also a pointed political allegory.
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Phil Hall, Film Threat
Mediocre fable from Burkina Faso.
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