Aristotle's Plot (Jean-Pierre Bekolo, 1997): a refusal to 'find' African cinema?

Towards the end of Aristotle's Plot, Jean-Pierre Bekolo's voice-over contemplates the relationship between cinema and African aesthetics. Bekolo's film remains quite unique within African cinema for both its stylistic radicalism and its self-conscious thematization of African film cultures. Indeed, Bekolo seems to question his own agency as an African filmmaker at every turn. This is accentuated by the relatively low-key position afforded to his voice-over; while his monologue functions as an autonomous, extra-diegetic voice in the film, it is only one of a plethora of narrative speaking positions. By the end of the film, Bekolo's return to the 'words of his grandfather' suggests he has realized that his research has only told him what he already knew — that cinema always was African. To reach this conclusion he has had to mine the oral knowledge passed down from his grandfather, rather than rely upon the 'Western conception of research' he refers to earlier in the film.