Ivory Coast / 1989 / 91mins / Comedy / French

A charming comedy about an Ivory Coast pineapple mogul, called Demi-God, with five wives, Dancing in the Dust teaches a comical lesson about greed. Named for his status ranking of second to God in his village, Demi-God makes the mistake of taking yet another wife. This marital addition is meant to harmonize his household. He will now have a different wife for each night, and the best wife a second time on Sunday, but instead she turns it upside down. The lovely, irreverent Binta, in trouble with her parents because of her disrespect of a family elder in Abidjan, is forced to marry Demi-God. Though Duparc does not resolve the contest between the old ways and the new, he takes an uproariously funny stab at arranged marriages and polygamy.

Henri Duparc

Henri Duparc was born in 1941 in Forecariah, Guinea. He studied cinema in Belgrade and at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques (IDHEC) in Paris before settling in the Ivory Coast. While working for the Société Ivoirienne de Cinéma (SIC), Duparc made seven documentaries and his first fictional film, Mouna ou le Rêve d’un artiste (1969). His film Abusuan won a special mention in the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou in 1973. His rich filmography also includes Les Racines de la vie (1973), Wild Grass (L’Herbe sauvage - 1977), Dancing in the Dust (Bal poussière - 1989), Rue Princesse (1994), among many others. Henri Duparc passed away in 2006. Learn More