The Fespaco Gold Standard awarded to a film by Somali director Ahmed Khadar

Published on : 24/10/2021 – 09:20

Somali director Ahmed Khadar awarded. On Saturday, October 23, he won the Yennenga Gold Standard of the 27th Pan-African Film and Television Festival in Ouagadougou (Fespaco).

The 40-year-old director, also of Finnish nationality and whose film is shot in Djibouti in the original Somali version, did not take part in the closing ceremony of the festival in the Burkinabè capital.

The president of the jury which awarded him the prize, the Mauritanian Abderrahmane Sissako, declared that “for any African filmmaker it is the best price that one can have, it is a great pride”.

Born in Mogadishu, Ahmed Khadar, also a writer, immigrated to Finland at the age of 16 with his family and refugee status. He directed his first short film, Me ei vietetä joulua, in 2014, then two others in 2017, Yövaras, and 2018, The Killing of Cahceravga.

Good welcome

Presented in July at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the International Critics’ Week, “La femme du gravedigger” was well received.

The film deals with the love story of a couple living with their sons in a poor district of Djibouti.

When Nasra, the wife – played by Somali-born Canadian model Yasmin Warsame – suffers from severe kidney disease and must undergo emergency surgery, the family’s balance is threatened and her gravedigger husband Guled must find money to pay for the expensive operation.

The film also won the award for best music.

The Silver Stallion rewarded “Freda” by Haitian Gessica Geneus and the Bronze Stallion goes to “A Story of Love and Desire” by Tunisian Leyla Bouzid.

The Best Actress Award went to the Briton of Sierra Leonean origin Zainab Jah for her role in “Farewell Amor” by Ekwa Msangi (Tanzania), while in the men’s category Alassane Sy distinguished herself for her role in ” Baamum Nafi “from Senegalese Mamadou Dia.

500 works

With his film “Serbi” (White fabrics) which deals with the dignity of women in a patriarchal society, the Senegalese Moly Kane wins the golden foal in the short film fiction section.

“Amani” of Rwandan Alliah Fafin and “Zalissa” of Burkinabè Carine Bado receive respectively silver and bronze.

The trophies were presented to the Ouaga 2000 Sports Palace by the Burkinabè presidents Roch Marc Christian Kaboré and Senegalese Macky Sall, whose country was the guest of honor at the 27th Fespaco.

Welcoming the successful screening of “500 works for the benefit of 150,000 festival-goers” from 64 countries during the festival, “despite the adversity linked to” insecurity and Covid-19 “, the general delegate of Fespaco Moussa Alex Sawadogo, made an appointment from February 25 to March 4, 2023 in Ouagadougou for the 28th edition of the festival.

A traveling “mini Fespaco” is to take place in the north of Burkina Faso, the region most affected by the jihadist attacks which hit this country and which, in six years, have left around 2,000 dead and 1.4 million displaced.

With AFP