Tournées 2^nd Annual French and Francophone Festival
March 14, 16, 17 5pm and 7pm			Montezuma Hall /Aztec Center All films 35mm and Free
March 14 5pm	Karmen Gei Dir. Joseph Gai Ramaka (Canada/France,2002)	March 14 7pm		On the Run / Cavale (The Trilogy, pt. 1) Dir. Lucas Belvaux (2002)
Karmen Geï is the first African version of “Carmen,” Prosper Mérimée’s novella. Like the novella, Karmen Geï deals with conflict, freedom, convention, desire, and the law. Neither men nor women resist Karmen but like her French counterpart she meets a tragic end. Combing traditional drums and songs, together with a contemporary jazz score and colorful costumes, director Joseph Gai Ramaka sensual, seductive tale..		In this noir-thriller, Bruno, an extreme-left revolutionary, has escaped from prison and contacts his former accomplice Jeannein order to restart his political activities. However, the police are on his tracks and for Pascal, the capture of Bruno would help him regain his credibility. Pascal also has to care for his drug-addicted wife Agnès. Searching for drugs, Agnès stumbles on Bruno who trades her drugs for a hide-out in a mountain chalet owned by Agnès’ friend Cécile
March 16 5pm	Tasuma Dir. Daniel Kollo Sanou (France/Burkina-Faso, 2003)	March 16 7pm			An Amazing Couple / Un Couple épatant (The Trilogy, pt. 2) Dir. Lucas Belvaux (Belgium, 2002)
“Tasuma” (The Fire), a proud retired West African who fought with the French army in Indo-China and Algeria, puts on his medals and his uniform and bikes to Bobo-Dioulasso to get his long-overdue pension. For years, his paper-work has been caught in red-tape but now he has hopes of receiving his due.In this humorous and touching film, anchored in the day-to-day reality of Africa, Daniel Kollo reminds us that until decolonization, thousands of African soldiers served in the French army		Alain has just learned that he has to have routine surgery. A hypochondriac, he is convinced that he will die, and in order not to alarm his wife Cécile he tells her a series of lies. Cécile, madly in love with her husband, and puzzled by his behavior, hires Pascal, a detective married to her friend Agnès, to track Alain. Alain’s lies about his operation and Cécile’s secret investigation lead to mounting misunderstandings between them and to Alain’s belief that all his friends and family are set against him.
March 17 5pm	Strayed / Les Egarés Dir. André Techiné (2001)	March 17 7pm				After Life/ Après la vie (The Trilogy, pt. 3) Dir. Lucas Belvaux (2002)
In 1940 at the beginning of France’s occupation by the Germans, the recently widowed Odile, flees Paris with her two children. When Germans bomb the road, the three flee into the woods. They encounter Yvan, an adolescent delinquent. The fugitives stumble into an abandoned house that becomes the setting for a makeshift family, a “desert island,” as director André Téchiné describes it. Téchiné’s use of powerful black and white archive images makes war ever-present and accentuates the isolation of the characters.		For years, Pascal, a cop, has been secretly using his connections to find morphine for his drug-addicted wife Agnès. His actions catch up with him as he is blackmailed by his sources: he won’t get any more drugs until he delivers Bruno, an escaped convict. Pascal faces a moral dilemma and is unable to provide morphine to Agnès. Agnès’ friend Cécile asks him to investigate her husband Alain. As Pascal focuses his attention on Bruno, Cécile, and Alain, Agnès goes out to find drugs and stumbles on Bruno who helps her
TOURNEES is co-sponsored by FACE, the Alliance Française de San Diego, CASE, the College of Arts and Letters, Africana Studies, and French and Francophone Studies.