Nadro on AllMovie

This French documentary looks at the life and career of influential West African visual artist, poet and author Frederic Bruly Bouabre. A former public servant, Bouabre, who later renamed himself "Cheik Nadro" after he had a "divine vision" while walking towards Dakar in 1948, played a key role in preserving the Ivory Coast's pre-colonial art and culture with his own internationally renowned "primitive" art. Rather than unfolding as a straightforward chronological biography, director Ivan Massetti has chosen to take a more free-form approach and place a heavy emphasis on the mysticism surrounding the artist -- a device that may make it difficult for viewers unfamiliar with Bouabre and his work to follow.