CHASSE AU LION A L'ARC, LA (from the Rouch Collection)

Year: 1965 Classification: Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG Runtime: 77 min Produced In: France Directed By: Jean Rouch Produced By: Pierre Braunberger Language: French narration, English subtitles
Proceed with ordering this title and for pricing information »

Warning: this film includes graphic scenes of animal slaughter.

A classic documentary from 1965 by Jean Rouch, one of the pivotal figures in the French “New Wave” and in the history of ethnographic cinema. The story of the hunters of the Niger desert in West Africa, who use bow and arrow, poison and magic, to protect cattle herds from marauding lions.

This documentary was filmed on the border of Niger and Mali in west Africa, over the course of seven field trips by Rouch, from 1958 to 1964. Narrated throughout by Rouch as filmmaker (even with his representation of ritual chants), the film follows the precarious lifestyle of the semi-nomadic Peul of this arid country. The Peul are herders and have a “pact” with the lions of the area: the lions may kill sick cattle and thus help to keep the herds healthy, but if a lion attacks healthy cattle then the pact is broken and the herders call in the Gow, those who hunt lions using the traditional weaponry of bow and poisoned arrow.

Assisted in the field by the men from JAGUAR, Rouch’s observation of both the technology and the ritual of the hunt are respectfully and meticulously detailed. The film follows the preparation of the bow and the metal arrowheads, and the poison used to kill the lion. Led by the great hunters, Tahirou and Issiaki, both of whom have killed dozens of lions, a small band of Gow men go out in search of offending lions. The advice of soothsayers is sought, and metal traps are laid. As predicted, the first expedition is a failure but several years later, Rouch receives a telegram recalling him to the desert for a new, more propitious hunt for a large lion they have nicknamed “The American” which has been attacking herds.

LA CHASSE AU LION A L’ARC is part of a collection of six films by Jean Rouch available exclusively through Ronin Films in Australia and New Zealand. The other titles in the collection are JAGUAR, LES MAITRES FOUS, MOI UN NOIR, PETIT A PETIT and MAMMY WATER.

< Back to Homepage