French filmmaker Mosco Boucault began his Police Investigation series with The Shooting on Mole Street, a 1998 film about the murder of a 15-year-old boy in South Philadelphia. For his 1999 follow-up, he traveled to Abidjan, a southern city in the Ivory Coast, where detectives set out to solve the murder of police officer Toussaint Zoghoury.
In Boucalt's previous film, the detectives were white, while everyone else was Black, but everyone is Black in A Murder in Abidjan. Lead detective Supt. Kouassi, who wears suits too big for his slight frame, begins by speaking with witnesses who describe the gun shot victim. The press blames gangsters, while Zoghoury's fiancée describes four men in a blue Renault.
Supt. Kouassi has no problem with police brutality. When an informant leads him to 19-year-old Ablo, he beats him with a mango branch to elicit a confession, though Ablo denies he was involved. Several witnesses say otherwise, but subsequent events will prove them wrong, and the superintendent will ultimately charge him with armed robbery rather than murder. While visiting the scene of the crime, the detectives and the suspect are swarmed by dozens, possibly even hundreds, of onlookers.
As in The Shooting on Mole Street, Boucault speaks with a couple of the suspects, this time in French. Ablo tells him he grew up on a farm, came to the city for work that his brother promised to provide, and found only disappointment. For the sad-eyed, soft spoken Abé, another suspect, an addiction to heroin led him to turn to armed robbery to feed his insatiable habit.
Another detective, Lt. Seah, also roughs up the suspects. He strikes one young man so hard, his eye swells shut. Two others end up with lacerations, bruises, and even broken legs. Lt. Seah laughs at their protests, and insists they're lying, even as they explain that they initially confessed only because he threatened to kill them. After a warning from Chief Constable Désiré Adjoussou, the men serve a month in jail before he lets them go, only for Supt. Kouassi to treat the next suspect the exact same way.
Things only devolve over the next 12 months. One suspect even ends up in the hospital. The detectives aren't entirely to blame for his life-threatening injuries, since he had been in a car accident before they brought him in, but they don't help as they continue to brutalize some suspects, neglect others, and act on tips from unreliable informants eager to curry their favor.
The documentary begins with a warning about scenes of violence, and it's fully earned. Though Supt. Kouassi eventually solves the case, it's hard not to feel for the killer who feels genuine remorse. Boucault never spells it out, but his documentation proves that brutality played no part in the solving of the crime. Beyond the sadism on display, it just made everything worse.
Supt. Kouassi, who says he has no regrets about his participation in the film, sums things up when he tells a suspect, "I'm a policeman. If I kill you right now, nothing will happen to me." Not to give too much away, but the film ends with his promotion. Recommended.
What kind of public or academic film collection is this criminal justice documentary best suited for?
This documentary should be included in French and African Cinema, Criminal Justice, Ethics, Expository Documentary, and Urban Studies collections. Public libraries that curate hard-hitting international documentaries or explore post-colonial African governance will find this title compelling and discussion-generating. Academic libraries, particularly those with strong global studies or justice programs, will benefit most from its inclusion.
What academic subject can use this French cinema vérité documentary in the classroom?
Mosco Boucault’s A Murder in Abidjan is a vital resource for college-level courses in African Studies, Criminal Justice, Ethics, French or African Cinema, and Urban Sociology. The vérité-style approach offers unfiltered access to systemic issues in law enforcement and justice in post-colonial West Africa. Professors in cinéma vérité courses will find Boucault's unobtrusive observational technique to be an excellent case study in documentary ethics and expository style.