The Bloodettes

In this early Afro-futurist shlocker (made in 2005 and set in 2025), two sex workers try to dispose of the body of a high profile politician who’s died on the job (theirs, not his). As rival powerbrokers manoeuver to take advantage of the vacancy, the women decide to rid the country of its corrupt, predatory men by way of an ancient ritual known as Mevoungou.

Curatorial note: “Through this melodramatic sci-fi film, Bekolo critiques political corruption and the expectations of social life in Cameroon through the death of a politician and the two women who must protect themselves from the system by disposing of his body. As they make their way through the darkness of a sometimes futuristic yet recognizable city, their lives intertwine with its inhabitants, offering a look at the social fabric and possible future of a post-colonial nation; Bloodettes attempts an interesting reality that abandons belief for something deeply compelling, which invests in social critique. In many ways, the women confront society through a divergent and oppositional dance…” Akojo Film Collective

Astonishing, provocative, insolent, fun and perfectly paranoid.

Olivier Barlet, Africultures

Playing something like an afro-futurist version of Tangerine, or a Black feminist take on Thelma & Louise (where the corpse joins the road trip), The Bloodettes is riotous, deeply cool and full of the ambivalence and complexity that can only be expressed by genre. A great introduction to modern African cinema.

Independent Cinema Office

Strangely compelling viewing.

Leslie Felperin, Variety