SITABAOMBA (WHERE ZEBUS SPEAK FRENCH)

Nantenaina Lova
Madagascar 2023 I Original Version with English Subtitles I 103 min

THU 14 NOV
20:00 SINEMA TRANSTOPIA

For the inhabitants of the village of Sitabaomba near Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo, French is not the language of love, but of colonization. They speak French when they order their zebu oxen in the field to go left and right, and their local language in puppetry and Kabary, the Malagasy art of oratory. Filmmaker Nantenaina Lova accompanies rice farmer Ly and other villagers in their struggle to defend their land against attacks by the state, the military and multinational corporations.

NANTENAINA LOVA, born in 1977 in Madagascar, studied sociology and humanitarian studies in France. Between 2003 and 2005, he returned to Madagascar and became a journalist. He completed a Master’s degree in Information and Communication in La Réunion and attended the ESAV Film School in Toulouse. In 2008, he founded the production company Endemika Films with his wife.