Yovo Bonsoir is a report about the travel trend of recent years: voluntourism. Travel organisations offer the possibility of combining voluntary work with a holiday during a relatively short stay in the country (two to three weeks on the spot). Even in the small West African republic of Benin, which borders Nigeria, the trend has arrived. The country is peaceful, still underdeveloped and traditional, making it the ultimate setting for a trip into the "heart of local culture" (as tour operators claim).
The report follows a French family (parents and three children aged between 4 and 11) on their "humanitarian journey". It was a childhood dream of the parents to volunteer in Africa and teach for two weeks in a small school in Ouidah, the coastal town that Benin presents as a souvenir of the slave trade. Throughout the trip, the family questions the usefulness of their presence and the purpose of this company. Can they, and the suitcases full of gifts, really teach anything, or are they here mainly for themselves, they wonder.
The reporters, Loes, Luca and Roel, wonder what the locals think of the good intentions of these white benefactors. In order to find out, however, they are confronted with their greatest shortcoming: they also come from the other side of the water. So they hand the camera over to a local team led by Kemtaan, a local hip-hop legend, and Modeste, the coordinator of this type of holiday. They interview the locals in their own language, breaking with the clichés. Sometimes funny, sometimes painful, but mostly confrontational.
