Eighth session of the film programme Manoel de Oliveira Espectador, which explores Oliveira's experience as a filmgoer, revisiting films and filmmakers which were essential in his journey as a cinephile.

LA CHASSE DU LION À L’ARC | THE LION HUNTERS

Jean Rouch | FRA | 1965 | 80’

Shot in the Niger-Mali border, The Lion Hunters is a major example of the ethnographic cinema that Jean Rouch developed throughout most of his career. Rouch takes the point of view of an African tribe, documenting their ways of life, the hunting rituals, their relationship with the elements and, overall, their reality. The film was shot over seven years, and it constitutes an invaluable document that respectfully presents the differences between the said civilization and the environment which depicts. Manoel de Oliveira considered Jean Rouch as a major figure in the history of cinema, and he directs The Lion Hunters  as "a jump to a realist and critical view of Europe, not with the viewpoint of civilization, but civilization as seen by the other side" (Manoel de Oliveira, Ditos e Escritos, Fundação de Serralves, p. 231).