Burkina Faso: Fifteen films in competition for Fespaco, great African cinema festival

The important cultural meeting will take place from February 25 to March 4 in Ouagadougou, where directors will try to run for Yennenga’s golden stallion, the supreme reward.

Mo12345lemonde with AFP

Fifteen films will be in competition for the Grand Prix of the Pan-African Cinema and television festival in Ouagadougou (Fespaco) in Burkina Faso, the biggest event in African cinema which will take place from February 25 to March 4, have Announced Friday, January 13, the organizers.

The selection of this year has 170 works in competition, divided into eleven categories, including feature film fiction, short film, documentary, TV series, school films and animated films.

On the fifteen feature films in the race to run for Yennenga’s golden stallion, the supreme reward, Cameroon and Tunisia are the most represented countries with each two films in competition.

The others are from Burkina, Senegal, Egypt, Nigeria, Mozambique, Angola, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco and Algeria. A film in the Dominican Republic was also selected. The jury that will award the gold Stallion will be chaired by the Tunisian producer, Dora Bouchoucha.

“Cinemas of Africa and Culture of Peace”

This year, Fespaco will celebrate the “Cinemas of Africa and Culture of Peace,” said the general delegate of the festival, Alex Moussa Sawadogo. This 28 e edition is held in a country which has experienced two coups in 2022 and which has been destabilized by recurring attacks of jihadist groups since 2015.

The Fespaco, the main meeting of cinema in Africa, is held every two years in Ouagadougou. Each edition sees films of all formats coming into competition to run for the golden stallion. Since 1969, the date of its creation, it brings together in Ouagadougou tens of thousands of spectators and actors in the middle of 7 e art.

Here is the list of fifteen films selected to run for Yennenga’s gold stallion: “The planting of the planters”, by Dingha Eystein Young (Cameroon); “My father, the devil”, by Ellie Foumb (Cameroon); “Ashkal”, by Youssef Chebbi (Tunisia); “Under the Fig Trees”, from Erige Sehiri (Tunisia); “Sira”, from Appoline Traoré (Burkina); “Abu Saddam”, by Nadine Khan (Egypt); “Bantú Mama”, by Ivan Herrera (Dominican Republic); “Mami Wata”, by C. J. Fiery Obasi (Nigeria); “Maputo Nakuzandza”, by Ariadine Zampaulo (Mozambique); “Our Lady of the Chinese Shop”, by Ery Claver (Angola); “Shimoni”, by Angela Wamaï (Kenya); “Simin Zetwal/Look at the stars”, by David Constantin (Mauritius); “The Blue Caftan/Le Bleu du Caftan”, by Maryam Touzani (Morocco); “The Last Queen/The Last Queen”, by Damien Onouri (Algeria); “Xalé, Les injuries de l’Enfance”, by Moussa Séné Absa (Senegal).