Now Showing: At Night All Blood Is Black

 

At Night All Blood Is Black

Genre: War / Drama

Director: Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese

Writer: Jimmy Ellis

Based on the novel by David Diop

Cast: Damson Idris, Micheal Ward, Vincent Cassel, Lea Seydoux, Thuso Mbedu, Guillaume Canet, Omar Sy, Peter Mensah

Plot: “I Know, I Understand, I should not have done it. God’s truth, now I know. My thoughts belong to me alone, but I won’t tell the ones that I may have told my deepest darkest secrets, I will not tell. I will tell you. They would be so disfigured, maimed, that God will be ashamed to see them show up in Paradise City and the Devil, happy to welcome them to hell. They will never truly know who I am. The survivors won’t know a thing, the dead won’t know a thing. The weight of shame will not be added to their weight of death, but it will to his. They won’t imagine what I’ve thought, but he will. They won’t imagine what I’ve done, he has. The depths of which this war has driven me, he will know. He does know. God’s truth, their families honor will be spared, but his, his will not be. As Mademba Diop will know. He will always know. My more-than brother, and now you know.” Alfa Ndiaye (Damson Idris) sits opposite Doctor Francois (Jean Dujardin), rocking back and forth. “You now know what these hands have done,” he shows his hands, trembling, as a smile comes from his face, tears next. He then begins to apologise, repeatedly. Doctor Francois stops Alfa, he has is daughter Madame Francois (Lea Seydoux), bring in some paper and a pencil. Doctor Francois asks Alfa if he could draw him some things about his own life, some things that led him here, that led him on the front line of this war, with his more-than brother, Mademba Diop.

Gandiol, 1914

Alfa Ndiaye and Mademba Diop walk the streets of Gandiol in Senegal. Seeing the old fisherman’s wife struggle carrying the basket of fish the two of them look to each other, before running toward the woman offering their help. The bickering between the two can only be described as the bickering of brothers, although the two were not. In fact the Ndiaye and Diop families had a long history of fighting, but not these two, not these two more-than brothers. Alfa Ndiaye reached the older woman first and carried the basket back to her home.

The two young men return back home, where they live together. When Alfa’s mother left him as a child and his own father beat him, Mademba begged his father to take them in. Now his father dead, the two live alone.

Alfa and Mademba walk through Gandiol, coming up to the home of the Thiam’s. Fary Thiam (Thuso Mbedu) stands out the front of the home, ready to walk down to the river. Alfa holds her up, asking how she is. Fary lets out a great smile, showing her joy in talking to Alfa. Alfa offers to carry the washing to the river as they walk, however Mademba grabs the basket to carry instead. Alfa just laughs this off, stating that the peacock has perked up. Mademba laughs off the comment on his totem, simply stating that they can’t all be lions. It seems evident that they always talk of their totems. When arriving at the river the two men are approached by Abdou Thiam (Peter Mensah), the village chief and father of Fary. He questions why the two young men are hanging around his daughter. The two men apologise to Abdou but mention that they saw she needed help. Abdou tells the men to go away, neither one will be the one to marry his daughter, reminding them that the two of them are shipping off to the war in the morning anyway. The two of them turn to Fary and smile, bowing, before scurrying away, Fary looks toward them with a great smile, one that is rarely seen.

While asleep the two men are woken by a noise outside their home. It is Fary Thiam, she asks the two to come down to the river, near the big tree. Without hesitation they do so. While at the three the three of them, along with other members of the tribe dance and sing around a fire. Mademba and Alfa both vying for the attention of Fary. Fary stands before them both, dancing, she leans over next to Alfa and whispers something before walking to the other side of the tree, peeking back to see if he follows. Mademba, although upset smiles at Alfa, giving him his blessing. Alfa stands and runs to the other side of the tree. A boy turning into a man before heading to war, the two make love behind the tree that whole night. Lying next to each other the next morning Alfa mentions that he should just stay and the two run away. Fary shakes her head, while visibly upset. He must go, when he returns to Gandiol, that is when they can be married. Alfa smiles at Fary, Fary smiles back. The most beautiful smile he has ever seen. He plants a kiss on her lips before walking back home ready to be shipped off.

Mademba and Alfa sit on the ship, the two of them laugh about the night before, with Alfa explaining to Mademba in detail about the relations he had with Fary. Mademba wonders what it would be like. The two of them bicker and laugh for the rest of the trip, the more-than brothers are one with each other, wanting to share every moment of this war together, with smiles on their faces.

Mademba, Alfa and the rest of the troops are in the trenches ready to charge the German soldiers on the other side. Mademba and Alfa look to each other with the other soldiers asking who will go first. Alfa looks at Mademba laughing, he states it will not be Mademba, his totem is the Peacock. Alfa repeats that Mademba’s totem is laughable, whereas the Ndiaye’s totem, Alfa’s totem is the noble Lion. Alfa tells him to shut up, prepare. The joking relationship between the two had been replaced by war. The whistle sounds. Like a bullet out of a gun Mademba shoots up out of the trenches, the first to emerge. He runs through no man’s land. The Senegalese run with the French, men fall from bullets all around, but not Mademba. Mademba runs and runs, he stabs a German soldier with his bayonet. We see in the background Alfa falling over from an explosion. As the explosion goes off, Mademba is stabbed by a bayonet, the man carrying out the killing, slices the stomach of Mademba, sending Mademba dropping to the ground. Alfa, not believing what he had just witnessed, crawls on the ground toward Mademba, as to not be seen. When he reaches Mademba, he presses himself against him. Mademba is crying, he begs Alfa to kill him, end his suffering. Alfa looks stunned. Once more Mademba asks, Alfa cannot bring himself to do it. Mademba begs and cries, one last time, while his right-hand claws at the surface of the battlefield. His scattered guts, all over the ground. He begs Alfa, with his last breaths to end his suffering, asking to slit his throat and not let the scavengers of death (Germans) devour his body. Alfa couldn’t do it, he can’t slice his more-than brothers throat and end his suffering, instead Mademba dies with his tears full and hands trembling. As soon as the breath left Mademba’s body, Alfa knew, a face of regret on his.

Alfa lay next to the dead body and guttural remains of Mademba staring at the night sky that finally came. When silence fell on the battlefield Alfa lept into action. He gathered Mademba’s guts from the ground and placed them back in his belly, as if a vessel. In the cold night, Alfa takes off his trench coat and shirt, sliding it under Mademba’s body and tying it to his belly, knots that became stained with black blood. He picks Mademba up, holding him in his arms like a child, and walked and walked in the mortar creviced mud. As he carries Mademba, tears begin to fall for his more-than brother. He asks for forgiveness.

After a long night of walking he sees it, Alfa can see the trench. As he returns he is welcomed back, as if a hero, not noticing that on the walk one of Mademba’s intestines had come out of his stomach. He began to receive pats on the back but Alfa showed no sign of emotion, he retrieved a gun from the locker and crouched down in the trench, staring at the body of Mademba be carried away.

As the soldiers eat their rations they talk about how Alfa should by awarded the Croix de Guerre. Alfa pays them no mind. Captain Armand (Guillame Canet) remarks that he is a savage they all are, but the enemy is afraid of a savage, they need these savages, without these savages this war would not be one. SAVAGE you could tell that word stuck in the mind of Alfa Ndiaye after that conversation. His face almost showing a different complexity.

The next morning the whistle of war is blown, Alfa with rifle in one hand and machete in the other charges out of the trenches screaming at the top of his lungs. He runs, then shoots, then jumps forwards onto his stomach. Alfa does this until he reaches the middle of No Man’s Land. A crater from all of the mortars fired has formed in the middle. Knowing that no mortar will hit their anymore (they target has been changed) he grabs one of the dead bodies and buries himself under it. Only his eyes in a gap to look out of.

When night falls, and the battlefield is silent, Alfa crawls out of the mortar made trench and to the enemies trench. Once close enough he stops moving all together. He isn’t the only one to think to start moving again once the firing has ceased as a lone German soldier has decided to return back to his trench. He comes upon what he thinks is Alfa’s dead body, remarking that this one got close. Suddenly, with his machete Alfa slashes the back of the man’s knees. The enemy is so scared, thinking Alfa has come back from the dead, that he makes no noise, not one. He just crumples to the ground. Alfa then disarms him and gags him. Tying his hands behind his back. He knocks the soldier out and begins to drag him back toward his own trench, back to No Man’s Land. Alfa then lies on the ground next to the enemy and waits, he waits patiently for the enemy to regain his consciousness.

Once he awakens, he is met with Alfa, staring directly into his eyes, a smile forming on his face. The soldier begins to squirm but cannot move. The panic, fear of death, is clear on this young, blue-eyed soldiers face. Alfa slowly unbuttons the soldier’s uniform, a cry comes from the muffled mouth of the soldier. Then Alfa cuts off some of the shirt to expose the belly. Alfa then begins to hear the voice of Mademba, begging him to slit his throat. He shakes it off. Alfa begins to slice the stomach of his enemy, at this time the muffled screams grow louder. He takes the soldiers insides and lay them next to him, still not dead. Alfa lies down next to him, turning his head toward his own and watches him die, just a little more, before slicing his throat.

Alfa returns to his own trench, another rifle and a hand with him. He is approached by Captain Armand and questioned on his actions. He tells Armand he is a savage is he not? Is this not what savages are to do? Are savages not to disarm the enemy? Take out the enemy, any way possible? Armand tells him that is very well, before walking away. The fellow soldiers praise Alfa once more. This time a smile forming on his face.

When trying to sleep Alfa continuously sees Mademba’s dying face, his last words, him begging for Alfa to kill him. Once the life leaves Mademba’s body he sees Mademba turn into his own body, before then turning into a Demm. A devourer of souls.

Alfa doesn’t stop there, every night thereafter Alfa repeats his steps, finding another enemy to disembowel and dismember, every time his fellow soldiers become increasingly more hesitant to get along with Alfa. The Chocolats going so far as to call him a demm to his face. This leads Alfa to really wonder, if indeed he truly is a demm. After the 7th dismemberment they had truly had enough, the Toubabs, Chocolats, sergeants and non-sergeants. Captain Armand had also had enough.

Captain Armand calls Alfa into his dugout. Inside the dugout is a Croix de Guerre winner Ibrahima Seck (Omar Sy). Seck is there to translate to both Armand and Alfa. Thinking Alfa is a demm, Seck stands with worry beads, fiddling with them behind his back. To lessen the burden on himself, thinking Alfa is a devourer of souls, Seck begins every translation with “the captain says”. Armand thanks Alfa for his bravery, for his fight, for his savagery, but he tells him that enough is enough. He orders Alfa to spend one whole month at the rear. Obviously, Alfa is not happy with this decision, wanting to inflict more pain on the enemy and himself. Finishing the conversation, Seck states that the captain would like to know where Alfa has hidden the hands. With no hesitation Alfa says he no longer has the hands.

Returning to his quarters Alfa begins talking to himself, “They want my hands, they are my hands, they will never get my hands.” Alfa views his hands. They are now all the same colour, feeling like camel leather and looking even worse. He stashes them at the bottom of his soldiers trunk, as he packs, in order to take them to the rear. Captain Armand orders for soldiers to search through Alfa’s things but these soldiers know better than to cross Alfa Ndiaye. They do not even open the trunk, reporting back to Armand that he no longer has the hands.

Reporting to the back, Alfa is surprised that he feels so at peace. Although he is not alone, the hands he brought and the voice of Mademba in his head guides his every move. All he does is sleep while women in white take care of him and tend to his every need. As a result of being sent to the back Alfa needs to sit before and speak with Doctor Francois. During their first interaction, Alfa felt at ease with Doctor Francois, an ease he hadn’t felt in a long time. But yet, no matter how much Doctor Francois insisted he would not open up. Doctor Francois instead thanks him for his time, stating he will see him the next day. As Alfa leaves the office of Doctor Francois, he bumps into Madame Francois, the doctor’s daughter. Alfa does not speak, but the woman smiles at Alfa, a smile like that he hadn’t seen since Fary Thiam back home.

As Alfa returns to his sleeping quarters he begins speaking, as if to Mademba. He tells Mademba of the meeting he had with the doctor and the daughter. Mademba’s voice asks if it was a look like Fary Thiam’s. Alfa just smiles.

The next meeting then follows with Alfa sitting opposite Doctor Francois. The doctor questions Alfa on whether he is ready to open up. Alfa sees Madame Francois who smiles, he says he is. He begins to tell the doctor about the severing of the hands, “I Know, I Understand, I should not have done it. God’s truth, now I know. My thoughts belong to me alone, but I won’t tell the ones that I may have told my deepest darkest secrets, I will not tell. I will tell you. They would be so disfigured, maimed, that God will be ashamed to see them show up in Paradise City and the Devil, happy to welcome them to hell. They will never truly know who I am. The survivors won’t know a thing, the living won’t know a thing. The weight of shame will not be added to their weight of death, but it will to his. They won’t imagine what I’ve thought, but he will. They won’t imagine what I’ve done, he has. The depths of which this war has driven me, he will know. He does know. God’s truth, their families honor will be spared, but his, his will not be. As Mademba Diop will know. He will always know. My more-than brother, and now you know.” Alfa Ndiaye (Damson Idris) sits opposite Doctor Francois (Jean Dujardin), rocking back and forth. “You now know what these hands have done,” he shows his hands, trembling, as a smile comes from his face, tears next. He then begins to apologise, repeatedly. Doctor Francois stops Alfa, he has is daughter Madame Francois (Lea Seydoux), bring in some paper and a pencil. Doctor Francois asks Alfa if he could draw him some things about his own life, some things that led him here, that led him on the front line of this war, with his more-than brother, Mademba Diop.

We come back to the final drawing that Alfa completes, the seven severed hands with a demm in the background. Doctor Francois takes Alfa through the drawings, a portrait of his mother, who he admired so much. A portrait of Mademba Diop, his more than half brother, the man he loved the most in this world, a man that is still very much a part of him and the final drawing. The doctor asks him why he took his time with each hand. Alfa reveals that he wants to cleanse his mind of the hands. He tells the doctor that he needed to show the doctor the hands, to confess all of his sins, to let the doctor in, let him know who he is truly dealing with. From then on the doctor’s usual smile faded, he no longer smiled at him the same way he did before. Then the doctor spoke words never truer heard by Alfa, “That’s war, it is when God lags behind the music of men, when he can’t untangle the threads of so many fates at the same time, when one man falls, another follows in the footsteps.” The Doctor thanks Alfa for opening up, before telling him that will be all. Once more when Alfa leaves he walks past a smiling Madame Francois, he goes to speak but she cannot understand, instead she looks Alfa up and down. Alfa takes this as a sign and walks away.

Alfa sits in his quarters and stares at the bottom of his chest, seeing the hand. His thoughts immediately cloud themselves, as he sees the body of Mademba, the naked body of Fary, the 7 hands and the face of the demm, himself. He then hears the voice of Mademba, begging, asking him to do this one thing for him. It then goes silent, before Mademba asks Alfa what it felt like, what it feels like to have sex. Alfa continues to stare at the hands before slamming the chest shut.

That night Alfa awakes, the voices inside his head ring clear. He walks the corridors that are painted white. He silently walks past each window, it is of utmost importance he not alert anyone. When he reaches his destination, Madame Francois is asleep, door open, an invitation, Alfa thinks. He then walks into the bedroom and lays down next to her. She lets out a loud scream, but Alfa covers her mouth, the screams grow deafening and silent at the same time. Alfa believes this is what she wanted as he smiles with glee. Tears fall from Francois, barely breathing, barely conscious.

Alfa Ndiaye stands before a firing squad. They ask for his name, but he is waiting for them to reveal it to him, he no longer knows who exactly he is, is he a demm, is he Mademba or is he Alfa. Instead of waiting any longer, he speaks for the translator who takes it all in, cautiously. “I am the shadow that devours rocks, mountains, forests, and rivers, the flesh of beasts and of men. I slice skin, I empty skulls and bodies. I cut off arms, legs, and hands. I smash bones and I suck out their marrow. But I am also the red moon that rises over the river, I am the evening air that rustles the tender acacia trees. I am the wasp and the flower. I am as much the wriggling fish as the still canoe, as much the net as the fisherman. I am the prisoner and his guard. I am the tree and the seed that grew into it. I am father and the son. I am assassin and judge. I am the sowing and the harvest. I am mother and daughter. I am night and day. I am fire and the wood it devours. I am innocent and guilty. I am the beginning and the end. I am the creator and the destroyer. I am double.” Everyone is confused, it is a one, two, three-word answer at most. The translator hesitates, intimated by the angry, worried looks being shot his way. He clears his throat and answers the uniforms in a small, nearly inaudible voice. “He said he is both death and life.” The firing squad opens fire on Alfa Ndiaye.

AT NIGHT ALL BLOOD IS BLACK