Fespaco Film Festival Awards - 2005 Winners
by Andre Soares
The Fespaco film festival’s Etalon d’Or de Yennenga (the Golden Stallion of Yennenga) for best African feature film has gone to South African director Zola Maseko’s Drum. The story of anti-Apartheid journalist Henry Nxumalo, Drum is set amid the jazz clubs of 1950s Johannesburg. Maseko also won a cash prize of 10 million CFA francs (US$20,000).
The second prize, the Etalon d’Argent de Yennenga, went to Moroccan director Hassan Benjelloun’s La Chambre noire (The Black Room), the story of the imprisonment and torture of a former militant in 1970s Morocco. La Chambre noire is based on the novel by Jaouad Mdidech.
The Third prize was given to Burkinabé (that’s a Burkina Faso national) director Daniel Kollo Sanou’s Tasuma, le feu (Tasuma, the Fire), the tale of an elderly soldier from Burkina Faso who fought for colonial power France in Algeria and Southeast Asia, but who is still waiting for his pension.
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"I feel a little bit ambiguous about people who say it’s a woman’s movie. Obviously I’m a woman and I’ve made the film. But to me that’s it. It’s not just about women and it’s not about me."
That’s director Fanta Regina Nacro, whose La Nuit de la vérité / The Night of Truth was in the running for the the Etalon d’Or de Yennenga.
Two other female filmmakers were also in the running, a record. They were Branwen Okpako, with Valley of the Innocent, and Appoline Traore, with Sous la clarte de la lune / Under the Moon’s Light.
Quote: Reuters
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