The Best of Fela Kuti - Music is the Weapon
Starring: Fela Kuti
Directors: Stephane Tchal-Gadjieff and Jean Jacques Flori
The film: This 1982 documentary sought to capture the spirit of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Nigerian musical superstar, inventor of Afro-beat, and possessor of the world's most amazing collection of trousers.
At the time of shooting, Kuti - who'd begun his musical odyssey as a student in London in the early 1960s - was entertaining thoughts of running for president of his troubled West African nation. No matter that the Nigerian army had recently sent 1,000 troops to his Lagos compound (dubbed the Kalakuta Republic), where they raped his backing singers (most of whom were also his wives), battered Kuti, and threw him and his 82-year-old mother from an upstairs window. His mother later died from injuries she sustained in the fall and Kuti at one stage obligingly lifts his shirt to reveal the many scars and burns he suffered in the brutal attack.
This is much more than a simple celebration of the man and his infectious, pulsating music. While there's enough of that to satisfy - including some outstanding live jams recorded at the famed Shrine nightclub and inspired rehearsals shot in his own backyard - the filmmakers explore the very nature of the society from which Kuti emerged. And it makes for gripping, and at times deeply disturbing, viewing.