Africa’s biggest film festival, the Fespaco (Pan-African Cinema and Television Festival of Ouagadougou), opened on Saturday 25 February in Ouagadougou in the presence of the Prime Minister of Mali, guest of honor and shaken as Burkina Faso by jihadist violence. The festival of African cinema, inaugurated in 1969 – by Upper Volta, the name of Burkina Faso at the time – must be held until March 4. Its objective, which is to show African films to African populations, particularly in Burkina Faso, has never wavered.
“Mali and Burkina Faso are two brother countries” which “are facing today, as you know, a security challenge. Our fight for peace and sovereignty remains the priority, “said Choguel Kokalla Maïga, much applauded. The Fespaco team recalled that several Malian films have won awards in the past, and that cinema still finds its place in this country, despite the political context.
In addition, the two neighboring countries are now led by putschist soldiers. Indeed, it is the first Fespaco since the military took power in Burkina, during two coups in 2022, the first in January, the second in September. “Our two countries are together, shoulder to shoulder, in the face of the terrorist hydra,” Maïga added. In this context, culture has a “vanguard role to play in the peace process”, he argued.
On a huge stage, around sixty dancers mimed fights to the rhythms of several drummers. The host of the opening ceremony explained that the choreography wanted to show “the courage and bravery” of Burkinabe youth in the face of jihadism.
The performance, titled “20 million VDP” (Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland, Civil Auxiliaries of the Army), refers to the number of inhabitants of Burkina, which has approximately 22 million inhabitants. On Wednesday, a dozen VDPs died in an attack in the North, adding to the deaths on February 17 and 20 of at least 70 soldiers in two attacks near Mali, also in the North.
In total, since 2015, the violence has left more than 10,000 dead in Burkina and some 2 million internally displaced people.
It was during “this crisis that this 28th edition was placed under the theme of African cinemas and cultures of peace”, declared Fidèle Aymar Tamini, president of the Fespaco organizing committee.
For his part, the Burkinabè Minister of Communication and Culture, Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo, affirmed that “Mali and Burkina Faso were walking together in common projects in terms of integration and cooperation”.
The Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, Apollinaire Kyélem de Tambèla, present at the ceremony, recently proposed the creation of a federation between the two countries.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power in Ouagadougou in a putsch in September, whose name cited in the speeches sparked cries of support, did not attend the ceremony.
Behind the scenes, 170 works were selected to take part in the official Fespaco competition, including fifteen feature-length fiction films in the running to run for Yennenga’s gold standard – a trophy named after the founding princess of the kingdom. Mossis, the majority ethnic group – and a prize worth 20 million CFA francs (about 30,000 euros) which will be awarded within a week by a jury chaired by Tunisian producer Dora Bouchoucha.
Cameroon and Tunisia are the most represented countries, with two films each. The others are from Burkina, Senegal, Egypt, Nigeria, Mozambique, Angola, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco and Algeria. A film from the Dominican Republic was also selected.
Some 10,000 festival-goers are expected, according to Haby Ouattara, coordinator of Fespaco, which is held every two years. Several films have terrorism as their main subject, such as L’Envoyée de Dieu by Nigerien Amina Abdoulaye Mamani and Épines du Sahel by Burkinabè Boubakar Diallo. “Designers are always influenced by what they see,” says Haby Ouattara. And despite the insecurity, the festival has chosen to relocate certain events.
Usually, the films are screened in different places in the capital and its outskirts “to give access to the cinema to people who don’t have it”. This time, they will expand to other cities with people displaced by jihadist violence. “We can’t pretend these people don’t exist. We want to make them dream, allow them to escape, ”points out Haby Ouattara. “It’s a first, but hopefully it will be the last, and they won’t watch the movies as displaced people anymore,” she said.
Members of the Fespaco organization will join displaced people in Kaya (Centre-Nord) and Dédougou (Centre-Ouest), two towns close to localities that have experienced recent attacks.
On the sidelines of the screenings are planned, as in each edition, meetings between producers, distributors, directors and broadcasters, support workshops for writing and development, colloquia and debates. This edition will celebrate the centenary of the birth of Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène, an emblematic figure of African cinema who died in 2007.
