 |
| One of the films to be screened. |
But Michel
Ouedraogo, the “delegate-general" of FESPACO (the Panafrican Film and Television
Festival of Ouagadougou) has promised that security will be ensured.
At a recent
briefing in Paris to unveil the event, Ouedraogo expressed his country’s
“solidarity with the people of Mali”, while stressing that “Africa has a
tolerant culture”. The organizers also pointed out that the festival has seen
three coups since its beginning in 1969, but is still going strong.
Now in its
23rd edition, the biennial festival will screen 169 films from 35 countries over
the next week, with the selection of the winning director eagerly awaited.
This year,
for the first time, the Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group
of States (ACP), based in Brussels, will
give an award of 3000 euros in the
framework of the ACPCultures+ Programme. The award will go to the film that
best reflects the objectives of the programme.
“We’re doing
this because we strongly believe that culture is important to achieve sustainable development,” said Michèle
Dominique Raymond, the ACP Assistant-Secretary General for Political Affairs
and Human Development.
“There is no
future without culture,” she told SWAN. “We want to do our best to find means
to provide some financial support to filmmakers, having in mind the global
financial crisis.”
The
festival’s central theme in 2013 is “African Cinema and Public Policy in
Africa”, and the debates around the topic have ironically focused on the
festival itself, with some observers wondering if it costs too much in a country where the 2012 unemployment rate was over 70 percent. Other critics wonder whether the event is too “elitist”.
 |
| "Cobwebs" tells a Malian story. |
He said that
while the government of Burkina Faso and the European Union provided the
largest share of funding, invaluable assistance also came from some NGOs and
external organizations.
The festival
has enabled African filmmakers to gain international attention, and also offers
the public a means of seeing Africa's stories on screen, the event's supporters
say.
Burkina Faso
itself will have only one movie among the 101 feature films in competition, with
the rest coming from South Africa, Morocco, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal,
Angola, and other participating countries.
Mali will be
represented by "Toiles d’araignée" (Cobwebs), the first feature film by Ibrahima
Touré. It tells the wrenching story of a young woman named Mariama who rejects
the old husband that her father wants her to marry and who is tortured and
imprisoned as a result.
The film is an adaptation of the eponymous novel, by
mathematics professor Ibrahima Ly, who himself was incarcerated from 1974 to
1978 at a time when Mali was under military rule.
The
festival's “guest of honor” this year is Gabon, which celebrated its 50th
anniversary of independence in 2012. According to Ardiouma Soma, FESPACO’s Artistic Delegate
and head of programming, the Gabonese were already making films at the dawn of
African independence. “This is a country that was part of the birth of African
cinema,” Soma said.
The Gabonese
entry in the feature film competition category is “Le collier de Makoko” (The
King’s Necklace) by Henri Joseph Koumba Bididi. Filmed in Africa and France, it
has been touted as the first high-budget film by an African director.
