'La Nuit des Rois (Night of the Kings)' Review | TIFF 2020

For a film fan based in Toronto, the Toronto International Film Festival (or "TIFF" as the cool kids say) is a mainstay on the calendar. As the last "big" film festival on the year, TIFF is usually the beginning of the third act for Hollywood. Now of course, this is the year 2020 and there are no mainstays on the calendar. All of the major summer events in Toronto have been cancelled - Caribana, Pride, CNE - so although TIFF looks different this year, we should be thankful that anything got put on.

One of the great changes in the age of COVID (and it remains to be seen if this will continue past 2020) is the availability of digital viewings across Canada, as well as drive-in and open air screenings (alongside limited screenings at the Bell Lightbox Theatre). I have gone to the movies since the Ontario government allowed them to re-open and had a rather positive experience. However, I was a bit hesitant about going to a cinema right downtown so I was grateful for the other options.

The film offerings for this year are understandably smaller than years past but there are still a lot of great movies to pick from. When going through the catalogue of films, I kept coming back to a film from Côte d’Ivoire: 'La Nuit des Rois' (Night of the Kings).

I was drawn to the film for two main reasons. Firstly, I had never seen a film from Côte d’Ivoire and am always trying to make a conscious effort to watch movies from around the world. And secondly, the one line summary TIFF used really pulled me in:

A young man incarcerated in a prison in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire must spend the whole night recounting a story if he hopes to survive, in Philippe Lacôte’s latest.

I love film for the storytelling and so a movie ABOUT telling a story? I'm on board.

The young man in question (Koné Bakary in a stunning debut performance) arrives at La MACA, the largest prison in Côte d’Ivoire, and is instantly thrown into the deep end by Blackbeard (Steven Tientcheu, 'Les Misérables' (2019)), the leader of the inmates. We learn that Blackbeard is sick and as per tradition/prison rules, he must commit suicide and relinquish his role as leader to another. But before he does this, he takes advantage of la lune rouge - "the red moon" - where an inmate is designated as 'Roman', the storyteller for the evening, after which, he will be sacrificed. The young man we are introduced to at the beginning of the movie has been chosen by Blackbeard as Roman. We are then taken through a story of murder and war with the young man desperately trying to extend his tale until morning to avoid death.

My biggest take away from this film was the world and atmosphere built by filmmaker Philippe Lacôte. The prison culture and environment on display are completely in contrast to what us in the West are familiar with (in movies). There are no uniforms or work detail, instead, the inmates self-govern, cash is used, cards are played on the stairs. The prison in 'La Nuit des Rois' reminded me more of an apartment building in a slum, which in a sense may be more punishing than a more traditional prison. Freedom without freedom.

What Lacôte did so brilliantly was show us a complete world without explicitly explaining it. The prison rules are organically explained through Roman's introduction into the world, and the actual story being told within the movie is done with a great deal of creativity and beauty. It is effortless storytelling.

I quite enjoyed this one - it didn't knock my socks off and I could nitpick at the quality of the CGI employed, but I was fully absorbed into the world. It's a relatively simple story against some pretty great film making.

There is one last TIFF screening of 'La Nuit des Rois' on Sunday, September 13 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox theatre. The film is also available for digital rental through TIFF Bell Digital Cinema until (presumably) the festival finishes on September 20.