Tunisian director Youssef Chebbi obtained, Saturday, March 4, in Ouagadougou the supreme reward of Fespaco, the largest African film festival, whose 28th edition was held despite a heavy security context due to the jihadist violence which undermine Burkina Faso.

The director born in Tunis in 1984 won the Yennenga Gold Stallion for his film "Ashkal".

Welcoming "extreme rigor" and "work that is out of the ordinary", the president of the jury, the Tunisian Dora Bouchoucha, specified that the Gold Stallion had been awarded to Youssef Chebbi unanimously.

In this thriller set in the Jardins de Carthage in Tunis, a neighborhood abandoned after the fall of President Ben Ali in 2011, two police officers investigate mysterious immolations.

"It's a detective plot but in fact it's about the Tunisian people," said Dora Bouchoucha.

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Selected for the fortnight of directors at the Cannes Film Festival in France, "Ashkal" also won the Antigone d'or, the highest award at the Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival in 2022.

The prize was awarded to a representative of the director, absent, by the Burkinabe transitional president, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power by a putsch in September 2022, wearing his usual red beret and dressed in a fatigues.

The Tunisian director is ahead of two women, the Burkinabè Apolline Traoré for "Sira", which receives the Silver Stallion, and the Kenyan Angela Wamai for "Shimoni", awarded the Bronze Stallion.

Since its creation in 1969, no woman has won the supreme award of this great African film festival.

Triumph of Tunisian cinema

A total of 170 works were in the running in various categories for this edition on the theme "African cinema and culture of peace".

The male and female interpretation go to all the actors and actresses of "Sous les Figues", by the Tunisian director Erige Sehiri.

Tunisia therefore triumphs in this festival of African cinema, at a time when hundreds of nationals from sub-Saharan Africa are fleeing the country because of attacks and demonstrations of hostility following a violent charge by President Kaïs Saïed against the irregular migrants.

The best screenplay was awarded to "Bleu du Caftan", by Moroccan Maryam Touzani.

Fifteen fiction feature films vied for the supreme reward, the Yennenga Gold Stallion, a prize worth 20 million CFA francs (about 30,000 euros).

This 28th edition of the festival was held in a very heavy security context in Burkina Faso, shaken by jihadist violence for several years.

Security devices, gates, excavations, armed soldiers and police, were put in place in front of the various places of the festival which welcomed 20,000 guests, according to the organization.

With AFP

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