Individualism In Third World Cinema

It is an aesthetic norm that Third World films follow a realist mode. These films use the camera to emphasise the realism aspects endorsed from the everyday lives. Odo Okere (cited in Gugler, 2003:10) references Ousmane Sembene in using the camera to reflect the everyday lives

The deliberate slowness and simplicity…characterises all the films, particularly in the use of long takes. The attempt is partly to allow the audience enough time, and with minimum difficulty, to digest information and partly to reflect the reality of the slowness which characterises much of African life. The need to maintain spatial and temporal realities also compels an unspectacular camera display. It will be seen, for instance, that almost throughout, his (Sembene)

Third Worlds, unlike Western Worlds, do not emphasise the individualism, rather, they emphasis on communalism. Thus, the rejection of close-up shots is the rejection of this notion of individualism in Third World cinema. The close-up shot is rejected by the Third World film-maker as it “(i) calls attention to itself; (ii) it eliminates social considerations; and (iii) it diminishes spatial integrity” (Gabriel, 1989:45). Elelwani hardly uses the close-up shots. In almost 90% of the film the director uses medium shots and long shots. Instead of the use of close-up shots to show the deep emotions of character, like it is the case with Hollywood cinema, Elelwani situates the characters and their emotions in the entire community. The audience gets to know the characters feelings through how the other community members interact with and treat them. As Gabriel argued; close-up shots seclude characters from the communities they live in, it makes them powerful or hopeless beings that deserve sympathy or praise. Elelwani rejects that. In this film we see the community as part of the challenges that Elelwani faces and also as part of the