Thursday 31 March 2011

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - a movie not to miss

Ok, I may be a bit schizophrenic in this blog..I write and post pictures about the most different topics - but diversity is what I like ..so today it's the turn of Africa once again.
(well, the main reason for that is that the day after tomorrow I m leaving for Mozambique).

So tonight I was reflecting on my trip to Africa and I have suddenly realized that a big role in my attraction to Africa has been definitely played by Erkki Sutinen- the Finnish Professor I work with who is right now in Maputo and whom I ll be visiting- and a movie which I saw at Erkki's house 2 years ago.
I remember it was around Christmas time, I was in Joensuu -Finland (the temperature outside was - 20°C) and I was watching a movie portraying Africa, the sun, beautiful and colorful dresses and an amazing nature. The difference between the cold and snowy Finland and the sunny and warm Africa could have not been more striking.

The movie was The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - originally a book written by the Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith.
The movie (and the book) tell the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging woman - Precious Ramotswe -  who is drawn to her profession to "help people with problems in their lives" so she opens up a detective agency.The agency is located in Gaborone, capital of Botswana (ok, It's Botswana and not Mozambique..but it's still Africa after all :))
 Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter and a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors.
The whole Africa is in that movie...I was very impressed by the story, by Precious's character- a strong but always smiling woman- and enchanted by the African landscapes.
In the picture below you can see Precious (alias the actress and singer actress Jill Scott)





I loved the fact that most of the film's posters were hand painted following the patterns of many African shop signs







I think these drawings are pure art...and the movie is just wonderful!!
Just take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdee9507YVM
as an introduction to the movie!!

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