Released in theaters on March 4, the animated feature film adapted from the novel by Ahmadou Kourouma (Renaudot and Goncourt Prize for high school students) and directed by Zaven Najjar was made in part at the studios of Gao Shan Pictures, in Saint-Gilles-les-Bains.
Allah is not obliged follows the journey of Birahima, Guinean child immersed in the violence of the civil wars of Liberia and Sierra Leone. Through his lucid gaze, ironic and moving, the film questions the absurdity of war and the loss of innocence. It is served by a staging of great visual intensity. “Intervening on Allah is not obligatory is fully in our DNA”, declares Arnauld Boulard, president of Gao Shan Pictures. “We defend ambitious works, demanding, which question the contemporary world and raise strong societal issues. This work, by its narrative power and its view of African history, fully resonates with our mission to contribute to animated cinema that makes sense, anchored in the Indian Ocean, open to Africa, and with an international vocation. »
Gao Shan Pictures regional animation leader
The Reunion studio teams ensured the creation of the rigs (first step in creating an animated digital character), characters, a you layout (composition, framing and setting up the characters in each scene). Between October 2023 and August 2024, the period mobilized technical and artistic expertise in structuring stages of the making of the film. This new collaboration with the production company Special Touch Studios follows the Funan projects (2018) and Miss Tang's Forest (2023). It consolidates a partnership on international-scale productions.
