If you’re in New York and haven’t seen the richly animated 1998 film Kirikou and the Sorceress yet, the French Institute Alliance Française is opening a weekend-long animation festival with it: the perfect time to see the film, with the director Michel Ocelot on hand, and the original Senegalese cast’s dub. The festival runs from Jan. 25-27, at FIAF’s Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th St. in Manhattan.
Kirikou takes place in an unspecified African setting, but given that Youssou N’Dour composed the soundtrack, the French language dialogue was recorded in Dakar, and the director spent his childhood in Guinea, somewhere in West Africa is a safe bet.
“It is thrilling to bring Michel Ocelot to New York audiences. The release of Kirikou and the Sorceress is among the most transformative moments in French animation from the past several decades,” said Delphine Selles-Alvarez, FIAF’s Film Curator, and Catherine Lamairesse, Director of Special Projects at FIAF, in a press release.
The screening is at 7 p.m., with a party to follow.
