Les Dieux sont à vendre

GODS FOR SALE tells a story with two faces. On one hand, there is the story of the theft of a work of art in Dogon country, Mali. In January 2000 Lassana Cissé, head of the local Cultural Mission - a body in charge of protecting the cultural heritage - received a letter informing him of the theft of a sacred item of high significance. It is a wooden statue, several centuries old, representing the couple who founded the age-old village of Nèni at the foot of Bandiagara escarpment. Fairly soon, the inquest led by the Cissé came to a standstill - he was short of incriminating evidence and was hampered by corrupt local officials. He therefore took advantage of a visit in the region by the film's author to ask him for help.
Michel Brent - who has been investigating the worldwide stolen art traffic since 1994 - took on the challenge. The film follows his first investigations in the villages where the families concerned with the theft live. During this first inquest, he learns that the statue was sold to a visiting trader, and, almost miraculously, manages to find out his name.
Chance events pepper the development of the inquiry, with the involvement of a shrewd OCBC officer (OCBC being the French body which fights the traffic in cultural goods) , originally met at Envoyé Spécial, a French television programme. A hidden camera is used to identify the stolen statue in a Paris art gallery, and the authorities in Mali are called upon so that the recovered sculpture can be officially handed back to the village people - three years after the theft, in December 2002.
Thing could have been expected to come to an end at this point. But during the handing-back ceremony, and to everyone's surprise, the village folk refuse to take back what had been their sacred cult object. The reasons they give don't convince anyone. So the item will be kept instead at the National Museum in Bamako.
While the story was waiting for its conclusion, Michel Brent's camera focused on the discovery of Mali's works of art in the 1920s ( with some very interesting archive footage ) and on professionals who analyse the causes of the illicit trade - notably in the streets of Paris where we witness illegal deals.
The story reaches its conclusion six years after the initial theft, with some people being delighted with the turn of events, others critical of the chosen solution, while some, within the very same village, go on pillaging their own heritage without remorse.
The other face of GODS FOR SALE is a reflection on the confrontation, which the Dogon people feel daily, between their animist traditions and Islam. Michel Brent focuses on the destiny of this age-old culture as it faces the modern world and new patterns of behaviour which inexorably infiltrate even the remotest parts of the African continent. (officiële tekst van distribiteur)