Ouagadougou (AFP)

The Fespaco, the main festival of the 7th art in Africa which was to be held at the end of February in Burkina Faso, was like the Cannes Film Festival or the Berlinale postponed, in a context of the rebound of the Covid-19 epidemic in Africa. Where is.

The Burkinabè Council of Ministers "adopted the decision to postpone the holding of Fespaco to a later date," government spokesman Ousseni Tamboura said during a press briefing in Ouagadougou on Friday.

Burkina Faso, where 10,423 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed since the start of the pandemic for 120 deaths, is experiencing, like the rest of West Africa, a second wave larger than the first.

"In view of the health situation, both nationally and internationally, linked to the coronavirus pandemic, it will be difficult to keep Fespaco on time," added Mr. Tamboura.

"It will not be easy for us to decide on a (next date) because it is linked to the evolution of the health situation", underlined the spokesman of the government, also Minister of Communication.

The Fespaco, the main cinema event in Africa, is held every two years in Ouagadougou.

Each edition sees films of all formats compete for the supreme award, the Gold Standard.

Since 1969, the date of its creation, it has brought together tens of thousands of spectators and actors from the 7th art scene in Ouagadougou.

The festival has helped to make known the greatest African directors like Ousmane Sembene, Souleymane Cissé, Idrissa Ouedraogo or Abderrahmane Sissako and also remains a great showcase for young talents both in front of and behind the camera.

"Very few planned productions have been carried out" since the start of the pandemic, detailed a statement from the Council of Ministers.

"Film shoots have either been stopped, postponed or simply canceled causing enormous losses throughout the film production chain."

- The only manifestation of global influence -

This postponement is announced two days after that of the Cannes Film Festival, the most important film festival in the world, which is traditionally held in May but postponed to July.

The first festival to start the year, the Berlinale, which was originally scheduled to be held February 11-21 in Germany, was also forced to postpone its edition to early March, where the competition will be held online due to the pandemic.

During the 26th edition of Fespaco Burkinabè held in 2019, the Rwandan film "The Mercy of the jungle", by Joël Karekezi, won the Gold Standard.

The 2019 edition, the fiftieth anniversary of Fespaco, was also marked by the revelation of sexual assaults against women in the world of African cinema, in the wake of the women's freedom of speech movement #MeToo, and its equivalent # Balancetonporc in France.

As usual, on the sidelines of the festival at the end of February was to be held the 20th International African Cinema and Audiovisual Market (MICA), a stock exchange for African audiovisual programs and on Africa open to professionals.

For several years, the great festival of African cinema has been the only manifestation of the global influence of Burkina, a very poor Sahelian country sucked into the spiral of sub-regional jihadism.

First quartered in northern Mali, jihadist groups some affiliated with Al-Qaeda and others with the Islamic State organization have since spread to the Sahelian sub-region, particularly in the north and east of " country of upright men ".

The security situation has continued to deteriorate there since 2015. The State, which has little presence, is unable to stem the spiral of violence which is only worsening despite international interventions.

© 2021 AFP