Oka!

A sweet-natured tale of personal and cultural exploration in Central Africa, filmmaker Lavinia Currier's Oka! is based on an unpublished memoir by ethnomusicologist Louis Sarno. In the late 1980s, Sarno traveled from New Jersey to Africa to record the traditional music of the forest-dwelling Bayaka Pygmies of Yandombe. Sarno's alter ego here is Larry (Kris Marshall), who journeys to Yandombe despite a failing liver and other threats to his health. After arriving, Larry immerses himself in Bayaka culture so deeply that he decides to stay on, recording music and falling in love with a young Bayaka woman. It's not all happily ever after, however: the local Bantu mayor (Isaach De Bankolé) is involved in shady deals with a Chinese logging firm that threatens to decimate the forest, and he's also planning to frame the Bayaka for poaching elephants. Rather than pursue a political agenda, however, Currier favors a more lighthearted, loosely plotted character study, beautifully shot by Conrad W. Hall (son of the late, great cinematographer Conrad Hall), filled with enough tribal music, dance, language, and jungle wildlife to make Oka! (the Aka language word for “Listen!”) a memorable travelogue in sight and sound. A lively, uplifting film, this is recommended. (J. Shannon)