From the organizer: ‘Yop city’ is a popular district of Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast. This is where lives Aya and her friends Bintou and Adjoua.

Aya is a studious 19 years old woman planning to become a doctor, while her two BFFs share the ambition to marry a rich guy and open their own beauty salon. So every night, the girls embark on a hunt to find their Prince charming - or simply get involved in night dramas - which Aya follows from afar. But one day, Adjoua gets pregnant and things get more complicated…

With a funny and light-hearted tone, on a vintage soundtrack, Marguerite Abouet brings us in the everyday life of a working-class neighbourhood of 1970s West Africa. While Ivory Coast is entering a post-colonial capitalist economy, poverty strikes Yop City. Yet, its residents still live their life and enjoy simple pleasures – humour, music, dancing, drinking… An image writer Marguerite Abouet, who grew up in Abidjan in the 1970s, wanted to oppose to the constant negative perceptions associated with Ivory Coast (and Africa in general).

Following Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) and Joann Sfar (The Rabbi’s Cat) steps, Marguerite Abouet is part of this wave of French graphic novels writers who aim at telling real-people’s stories through comics.

Director: Marguerite Abouet & Clément Oubrerie
Released: 2014
Duration: 84 min
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXvwKmVofjw

This screening is supported by the French Institute in Vietnam - Viện Pháp tại TP Hồ Chí Minh