Night of the Kings
**Seen for the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.
“Night of the Kings” plays off of a storytelling tradition of the King of the Castle calling on his bard to entertain his kingdom in story. Director Philippe Lacôte has transferred that to a prison in Cote d’Ivoire, where the king, in this case, is closer to King Lear, trying to maintain power that is no longer his, in his old age. When the film has its bard out in front, telling his story, it is riveting. When it doesn’t, it’s merely fine; the film is left too open-ended in the end to be as captivating as it could be.
It’s interesting whenever a film is set in a prison, or any place where people are cut off from the outside world. The most interesting films create ecosystems within that framework, explore power dynamics, and often look at what happens when a misfit is thrown into that world. “Night of the Kings” has a lot of that baked into it even before “Roman” (Bakary Koné), the name a young man who is entering “La Maca” prison is given, begins to tell his story. As the film goes on, the military officers overseeing the population of La Maca, which is in the middle of the Ivorian forest, very clearly would be content to either massacre the population of this prison, or watch it tear itself apart. The prison is run by one of the inmates, Blackbeard (Steve Tientcheu), who is old and on oxygen. Still, he rules with an iron fist, and having a storyteller is an important part of his ability to do so. When the new guy starts to tell him about a dream he had, it’s a perfect fit. Once Roman begins his story, however, he must find a way to continue it, because he is warned of what might happen when he finishes up.
The story that Roman tells is of an outlaw known as the “Zama King,” and his exploits make up a good portion of the film’s 93-minute narrative. When we see what Roman is narrating, or watch Roman finding his storytelling, the film is particularly gripping, especially as we understand the stakes for him when he finishes. Unfortunately, everything else at the prison feels less than compelling when Blackbeard leaves the movie, which is about halfway through. Where he goes I will not say, but it plays completely into the ideas established at the outset by Lacôte, and leads to a completely predictable conclusion. The problem is he has such a presence to him that the film suffers when neither he nor Roman are onscreen, physically or emotionally, in the case of Roman telling the story of the Zama King. When they are part of the narrative, or supplying the narrative, “Night of the Kings” is a fantastic exploration of the power of a good story to keep us riveted. Unfortunately, the film isn’t as strong as the moments that play to that idea are.
