Art & Authenticy

The complicated relationship in Souleymane Cissé’s Min Yè… (Tell Me Who You Are) between Mimi (Sokona Gakou), Issa (Assane Kouyate), Abba (Alous Sissoko), and Nassoun, which serves as a miniature of the polygamy system in Mali, leaves the audience an impression that the many problems caused by polygamy have no solutions. Mimi, the 52-year old rich woman, and the other wives of Abba fight over him just like a group of immature girls fighting over a dress. The women all want the man to love themselves only, even though they know that they’re in a polygamous marriage. A man, just like a dress, cannot be possessed by more than one “owner.”
Even though the film revolves around the topic of polygamy, which is intriguing and attracts the audience’s attention since the concept of cheating in relationships is exposed to everyone, because the director and screenplay writer Cissé has not put together his ideas well, causing the film to be trite and repetitive, the film was not a major success. The multiple times when Mimi gets angry and then gets even with Issa, the repeated scenes of Abba driving in his car, and the trite natural sceneries all ruined the film. Despite the screenplay’s failure, I was captivated by the cultural encounters that I had while watching the film—the clothing, language, sceneries, and music all presented authenticity of Malian culture.