Oka!

The source material for this film is the memoir LAST THOUGHTS WHILE VANISHING FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH by Louis Sarno, but that text is significantly different from this film. Number one for me, the protagonist "Larry", is nowhere near as charming nor funny as the real Louis Sarno, though the character evidently has some of the same diseases as him. Louis was hired as an advisor and facilitated actual Aka (pygmy) people appearing in the film. They are the most authentic part of it, along with locations in the Central African Republic. Within that country relations among people and groups can be quite complicated (well-shown in Sarno's text,) but for dramatic effect a logging company becomes the chief adversary and the actor Isaach De Bankolé is wasted as a one-note villain.

I do not know much about the actual life of L. Sarno, but this film depicts a great story about a man finding a home in an unfamiliar and often hostile place. As a former Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, I can relate to these feelings and themes. The soundtrack is great and the acting is genuine. Perhaps it is only for personal reasons, but parts of this film will always be special to me.

What promised to be a fine work, representing the life of L. Sarno as he joined and lived with the Ba'Aka, turned out to be a terrible waste of time and investment. The score, for one thing, is quite distracting throughout -- except for the Ba'Aka music -- and the story as portrayed in this minor narrative, is unrevealing and flat. Currier is no director, as this film shows. As they say, "not ready for prime time."

Sarno's work, which began in 1984 or there abouts, represents some of the finest and most prescient connections of an outside party to those living close to nature, and discovering the relevance of perseverance under very difficult conditions culturally (because western influence is so virulent), spiritually, economically and socially. Sarno has recorded and published some of the details of this extremely trying environment, not much of which surfaces in this presentation, unfortunately. It is convenient exploitation rather than a well-grounded endeavor.

Oka means 'Listen' in the Pygmy language. Louis Sarno is an American author who in the mid 1980s spent time with Bayaka Pygmy tribe in the Central African Republic.

Sarno recorded their music and his experiences were published as Song From The Forest, which was included among the '99 books that capture the spirit of Africa' by Geoff Wisner.

If you want to know more about Sarno you will not find out from this curious film, it tells you little about him or what exactly he is dying off as the early scenes are with a doctor in the USA. Sarno is still alive and lives in CAR.

British actor Kriss Marshall plays the American author and throws himself in the role as he has to speak with an American accent as well as French and local dialect. There is plenty of scenes in the jungle which leads to some beautiful scenery and scenes with the local tribes as they stave off industrialisation. There is some colourful indigenous music but the plot is slight, in fact there really is not one.

The lack of a plot means the film gets dull very quickly from an interesting beginning. The film wants to give a message of conservation but it is muddled. The tribe does not view life with western eyes. The biggest failing is you do not get to learn about the man himself. An amiable diversion for people interested in Africa.

There was no notice of "no animals harmed" by the AHA, RSPCA, WWF or as a courtesy of the filmmakers themselves. And being that this was a pretty low budget effort, I'm sure they didn't use sophisticated cgi or animatronics. Most people don't care about the abuse of animals in film, but in case you are one of the few, be forewarned.

Beyond that, the film is a conflicted mess. I'm not sure whom this film is supposed to appeal to. Tree-huggers like me are attracted by the theme of conservation, trite as it may be (a mega timber corporation wants to chop down the rainforest and displace the pygmies, yeah yeah but I'll still watch). However, the film is terminally muddled by contradictory elements and hypocritical messages.

We're quite obviously supposed to feel sympathetic toward the pygmies and hateful toward the slick-dressed, smooth talking politicians who make deals with evil Chinese whilst they dine on elephant meat (I'm not exaggerating, that's how hard they beat us over the head with the good guys vs. bad guys). But the Pygmies themselves are shown killing animals with their bare hands, shopping at markets for skewered monkeys, killing birds, and... did anyone catch? making musical instruments out of elephant tusks. And this glorious elephant tusk horn is the holy grail of the film. Explain that hypocrisy. Or better yet, don't even waste your time.