In the News: the end of a magical festival!
Audio 04:16
The statue of a cameraman in front of the headquarters of the Pan-African Film and Television Festival (Fespaco) in Ouagadougou, October 14, 2021. (Illustrative image) AFP - OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT
By: Frédéric Couteau Follow
3 min
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“
Magic!
»: This is how
WakatSéra
describes the 27th edition of Fespaco, the pan-African film and television festival in Ouagadougou which ended this weekend. “The Gravedigger's Wife,
by Somali director Khadar Ayderus Ahmed, 40, created a surprise, winning unanimous support among the grand jury chaired by the great Mauritanian director, Abderrahmane Sissako. A film that comes from a “
difficult
” country facing, among other things, the double food and security crisis. He thus succeeds The Mercy of the jungle by Rwandan Joël Karekezi, winner of the Yennenga Gold Standard of Fespaco 2019. (…) This 27th Fespaco was one of resilience,
WakatSéra further notes,
forced to adapt to the double security and health challenge, Covid-19 and armed attacks, that Burkina Faso is experiencing, like other countries, especially those in the Sahel.
(...) The festival will have been well masked, therefore, Covid-19 requires, and monitored like milk on the fire by the Defense and Security Forces who were on the teeth for a week.
"
Nonetheless, continues WakatSéra, “
the dark rooms have, quite well, shared the world of festival-goers with the famous Fespaco shopping street, split up in several places, and where succulent skewers and chicken bicycles were tasted, in a din of musical rhythms, vomited by loudspeakers bawling at the top of their lungs.
"
Confidence regained
"
"
The security tensions have changed our mentality, our behaviors
, "said,
in
Le Point Afrique,
Rakis Rodrigue Kaboré, who runs a movie theater seats 1050 in the heart of City Year III in Ouaga. “
We have become more cautious and suspicious. In recent months, in theaters, our receipts have declined. When people hear that there has been a major attack, they prefer to stay at home. The Fespaco has therefore made it possible to restore the confidence of the Burkinabé public, which has returned to theaters. Attendance was timid the first two days of the festival, people waited to see that the security device was serious. And then from the third day, we had to refuse people for certain films
”, Remarks the room operator.
This was the case, for example, this Thursday evening at 8:30 p.m., during the broadcast of La Nuit des rois, by Franco-Ivorian Philippe Lacôte.
"
A camera like "
a handgun
"
Jeune Afrique
notes that an
itinerant
“
mini Fespaco
”
must take place in northern Burkina Faso, the region most affected by jihadist attacks which, in six years, have left around 2,000 dead and 1.4 million displaced.
"
And precisely, points out
Le Monde Afrique
,
one of the documentaries presented at the festival tells the story of the security crisis that has plagued the north of the country for 6 years. It is about
Massiiba, the evil of a people
, of Seidou Samba Touré. “
An ode to the resilience of the populations of the Burkinabé Sahel region. His camera: his handgun in the face of violent extremism. (…) Seidou Samba Touré was able to film his native lands, in the “
red zone
”, crisscrossing the roads on a motorcycle, a small camcorder hidden in his bag, before, he says, it is “
too late
”.
“
Today, this film would have been impossible
”, indicates again the young scenario writer originating in Gorom-Gorom, in the zone known as “
of the three borders
”, near Mali and Niger, where more than 30,000 displaced people have taken refuge fleeing the violence of terrorist groups. It tells the story of Gorom-Gorom “
before
” and its market teeming with traders and artisans from the region, Fulani, Tuareg, Songhai. Oursi, the city of the desert, where dozens of foreign tourists flocked every day, who came to ride camels and sleep under the stars. Another time, over, which has given way to a field of ruins, schools and houses burnt down by armed groups. (…) The dream of Seidou Samba Touré,
again points
Le Monde Afrique
: organize a screening of Massiiba in Gorom-Gorom and create a film school for young Sahelians. “
It's up to us to tell our story,
”insists the filmmaker, smiling, who is already training twelve young people in documentaries on smartphones.
"
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27th Fespaco: the game of predictions before the closing ceremony
Fespaco 2021: Somali Khadar Ayderus Ahmed wins the Yennenga Gold Standard
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Abderrahmane Sissako: "The Fespaco selection committee viewed more than 1000 films"