Oct 13 2009
Distinctive Characters, Not Enough
Souleymane Cisse’s “Min Ye…Tell Me Who You Are” is a rather repetitive film where the relationship between Mimi and Issa goes back and forth for 2½ hours. Mimi had shown a very interesting personality, which demanded the attention of both men in her life. However, her unfaithfulness had made me lose sympathy towards her throughout the film. Issa has become more of a hopeless romantic as he has given Mimi more than enough chances. I think of Mimi as a stubborn fool because even as others persuade her not to have a divorce and warn her not to play around, she continues her relationship with Abba. Even with Mimi’s strong character, the lack of something new throughout had me questioning what’s the point of this. Every twenty minutes of the film felt like dejavu. With just a difference in characters (addition of servants then lawyers then officials etc), the constant need for Mimi to cheat has been shown more than enough times.
I do agree that it was extremely repetitive, but isn’t life that way? How easy is it to solve a problem in your house? it isn’t very easy… The fact is that women like this to exist and they do things that Mimi did, the way she did it too. It could have been a little more interesting, but it is real.
Hi Jason — good post. You need to go back and check off the category for this assignment — Tell Me Who You Are. You’ll find the categories listed in a menu on the right-side. Just click “edit” from within the post.