Sacred Places
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Documentary
70 min
Every year, Africa’s biggest film event, the FESPACO Film Festival in Burkina Faso, draws celebrities and crowds from around the globe. But few realise the rich film history of the country’s capital, Ouagadougou, or the passion of its people for the medium.
Director Jean-Marie Teno steps into a parallel world and focuses on St Leon, a shantytown community in the heart of the city that lives and breathes film. It reconnects with the pioneering spirit of the festival of the 1980s – before its inevitable commercialisation, and remembers what inspired him to take his message of an African cinema to an audience that truly understood it.
The film’s triumph is its ability to paint, through the comings-and-goings at the tiny Bouba cine club, a vivid picture of a contemporary African community in all its complexity, while at the same time making the point that entertaining film can educate as well as enthrall.
Directed by
Jean-Marie Teno