African Folktales & The Brave ones

In a time of false representation and inclusivity, Netflix offers an approach to African literary cinema; not needing the conventional rhetoric, recreates the African in all its splendor and dignity. These are not folkloric themes, which perpetuate the traditional clichés about the relationship with nature and color; but mature and contemporary literature, which can go to its popular traditions, without losing an iota of this contemporaneity.

Not  that this is new or strange, in a continent that has in fact contributed classics to universal literature;  but it has lacked fair representation, as a lack now compensated, to the greater joy of all. As said, African folktales is then a series of tales not exactly folkloric, but very literary;  maybe due to  its dramatic efficacy  that does not resort to sociological discourses, but to the very complexity of the real.

Perhaps then this is a cultural prerogative of the mother continent, in which the past does not disappear;  smiling instead in any corner, while maintaining this appeal that gives meaning to his art, not corrupted yet with conceptual glimpses. Africa is thus an exotic continent, not because of the fauna that is seen in any zoo, nor the clothes that the rest of the West imports; but because of this faculty of a still human culture, which resolves its existential drama in the lives of people and not in speeches.

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That is what undoubtedly feeds its wonderful art, in this series that also brings fresh faces to the screen; apart from a spectacular cinematography, apo supported by the beauty and immensity of the continent. To give an idea  –if  that were possible– these stories remind of those of Malá Straná, even in their strange contemporaneity; all in a visual language that have not issues with social contrasts but does not overexploit them either, because it is art and not a discourse.

If any black person still feels the need to be represented, then they should look at this beauty of his mother continent; instead of stuffing themselves into other people's silks and powdered wigs, of which should be ashamed like of a minstrel.  African Folktales  is not an entirely  commercial product, but a collaboration between UNESCO and NETFLIX; so it is another cultural grant project, which nevertheless  –in this case– stands out for its efficiency.

That's probably because it arises in the narrow strip where popular culture lacks the resources to specialize; very different from that other where popular culture already disappears in its corruption, selling itself as what it is not. In any case, this is efficient in that literary vitality of its cinematography, already disappeared for the rest of the  West; perhaps because of that precariousness so unromantic of its environment, which is what sustains its art, with its slow and difficult integration into the world.

Of course, being from Netflix there is a whole section of African films and series, which knows glory and dishonor; but in a market saturated by the expensive trifle of Black Panther, the  action and fantasy series The brave ones also stand out. What is interesting about this —like in the other— is the authenticity of its Africanism, not derived from superficiality of comics and superheroes; so it has a wide range of supernatural traditions, to which it resorts in its practical value, not playing with horror and mystery.

As a defect, its cinematography abuses the teal & orange filter, which  is almost universal like a fake black and white;  but saved this difficulty, everything is party in a dramaturgy well pressed, that plays with its climax and anti climax. In fact it is not a simple confrontation between Good and Evil, as is typical of the series of superheros; but a very complex plot, with all the humanity that used the ancient myths, in addition to its magic.