"Petit frère," begins the film, "il n'y a plus de lois dans ce pays." (Little brother, there are no laws anymore in this country.) 'De la vie des enfants...' was recorded between July 1999 and January 2000 in Dakar, and shows the lives of the street children in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. The camera followed two youth gangs day and night. Calmly and with equanimity the camera records the looks, gestures and reactions of these children who live from drugs and prostitution, and whose lives are already hopeless from birth. The video is in black-and-white and the framing and camera work have clearly been inspired by classical, realist photography. We see a series of short sequences, with the images sometimes speeded up, sometimes slowed down, sometimes with sound, sometimes silent. As a result of this the film is formally different from traditional documentary, but the events and images are definitely very much those of the daily lives of the children and they are never fabricated.
Papisthione had just turned eighteen when he made this, his first independent film. What makes it so unique is the relationship between the camera and the children, and the vitality and trust shown by the manner in which they relate to the camera. The lens is their confidant and they take it as it were by the hand. In an exuberant and precocious way they play with the fact that they are being filmed. They hide nothing of their insulted and obscene lives, yet this is the first time I have seen a camera touch the abject so lovingly, with such an intense continence. We hear no dialogue, we do not know what goes on between the interviewer and the children. The children's secrets and stories are not betrayed, the conversations not revealed. The camera belongs to them, not to the viewer. This is a redemptive film, calling to mind Pasolini's images of the thieves and beggars of Naples. When 'De la vie des enfants...' premiered in 2000 at the Dakar Biennial, it immediately made a deep impression, and at later showings won several awards. It was said that Papisthione himself might have been one of the street children. He isn't, in fact, but he did grow up in the centre of Dakar "dans un quartier chaud" (a hot neighbourhood). He shared his money, clothes and food with them and they became friends. And who wouldn't want to become friends with someone like him? Papisthione likes to juggle and visit the circus. He is an actor, photographer and filmmaker and is working on a second documentary on the lives of street children who are sexually exploited.
– Marianne Brouwer
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