In the Footsteps of Nomadic Shepherds
2023 · 1m · Benin
Directed by Ben Johnson Sassou
Tones: contemplative, tense
An African western in one minute: a confrontation between a nomadic shepherd and a farmer.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A one-minute African western sounds like a conceptual stunt, but Sassou resists the gimmick entirely—there's no irony, no winking, just two figures and a landscape that somehow contains the weight of a full story.
The formal compression here is classical, almost Bresson-like in its restraint; a confrontation stripped to gesture and silence that positions itself against the sprawl of traditional western iconography.
In sixty seconds, a single choice—probably the decision to hold on the shepherd's face at the exact moment the conflict becomes irreversible—transforms a micro-budget premise into something that feels inevitable and complete.