Divine Carcasse

A subtle and charming fictional narrative that metamorphoses into a quasi-documentary, Divine Carcasse follows the physical and metaphysical progress of a 1955 Peugeot automobile. Brought to present day Benin in Africa by Simon, a philosophy teacher, the car is turned over to Simon's cook, Joseph, after running it becomes a fulltime occupation. Through Joseph's ownership, the Peugeot embarks on a journey into African culture, eventually being sold to a body shop where it's literally reborn as a fetish of the ram god Agbo. In this form, the Peugeot-cum-fetish returns to the village where it first arrived in Africa. Presented with an informal feel that actually enhances the production, this program is chock full of multilayered meanings and challenging portrayals in its intertwining of philosophical and ethnographic strands. In short, this is the kind of video that should be widely seen, but, one suspects, will not be a circulation leader. A shoe-in for academic libraries, this is also highly recommended for quality public library collections. Aud: C, P. (M. Tribby)