Espoir-Voyage

In 1977, Joanny, the filmmaker’s brother left Burkina Faso. Eighteen years later, in 1994, the family learns of his death. “A man doesn’t disappear like an animal”, says the filmmaker’s aunt speaking to her son Augustin, who has emigrated to the Côte d’Ivoire as Joanny had done before him. The beauty of the filmed investigation of Zongo, born in 1973, hinges on a form of modesty – which also prompts him to lend his camera to his aunt and cousin to help them mend their broken relationship. Aware that he is searching for an elder brother he hardly knew, Zongo makes no attempt to worm secrets out of the witnesses he encounters. He is content to simply meet with them, as living traces of his absent brother. Yet, the intimacy thus created does not prevent Espoir-voyage from giving an insightful view of African intra-continental migration and common misunderstandings about migration: the family that remains behind confuses the shameful silence of a non-successful emigrant with selfish behaviour. In search of his elder brother, Zongo gives an even more moving portrait of his cousin. “I’m fighting, really fighting. But as I haven’t succeeded, I can’t prove it.”