Throughout his career, Cameroonian director Jean-Pierre Bekolo has been searching for cinema; not African cinema, just Cinema. In order to explain properly this claim, the essay will first consider Bekolo’s work within the context of the ever-ongoing conversation regarding the framing and aesthetics of African and Third Cinemas. Second, for a closer perspective on what will be termed “neurotic cinema,” the essay will key on Bekolo’s latest effort, Naked Reality (2016), a purposely unfinished work that echoes absurdist theater, mimics frantic contemporary thought, and proposes that cinema should not yield finalized products because that may go against its very nature.
