Côte d'Ivoire
A young, unnamed Ivorian intellectual returns home after a lengthy spell in France. Failing to reconcile his new-found modernist views with his African traditions, and obsessed with his sexual inhibition, the man becomes haunted by the specter of a knife-brandishing woman threatening to shatter any potential relationships with other women.
Set in Abidjan’s MACA prison, the aging Black Beard, in attempt to maintain control over his fellow inmates, resorts to a “story” ritual, wherein one prisoner is forced, Scheherazade-style, to tell stories for an entire night. The young pickpocket he chooses relays the haunting tale of the Zama King.
