Abderrahmane Sissako
Encyclopedia
Abderrahmane Sissako is an award-winning film director and producer who has often worked in Mali
and France
. Sissako is, along with Ousmane Sembène
, Souleymane Cissé
, Idrissa Ouedraogo
and Djibril Diop Mambety
, one of the few filmmakers from Sub-Saharan Africa
to reach a measure of international influence. His film Waiting for Happiness
(Heremakono) was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival
official selection under Un Certain Regard
, winning the FIPRESCI Prize. His 2007 film Bamako
received much attention. Sissako's themes include globalisation, exile and the displacement of people.
, where he studied cinema at the VGIK (Federal State Film Institute) from 1983 to 1989. Sissako settled in France at the beginning of the 1990s. In addition to feature film
s and short films, Sissako has served on the jury of the Premiers Plans
festival in Angers
in January 2007, and on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival
later in the same year.
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Sissako is, along with Ousmane Sembène
Ousmane Sembène
Ousmane Sembène , often credited in the French style as Sembène Ousmane in articles and reference works, was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer...
, Souleymane Cissé
Souleymane Cissé
-Biography:Raised in a Muslim family, Souleymane Cissé was a passionate cinephile from childhood. He attended secondary school in Dakar, and returned to Mali in 1960 after national independence....
, Idrissa Ouedraogo
Idrissa Ouedraogo
Idrissa Ouedraogo is a film director from Burkina Faso. He is best known for his films Yaaba and Tilaï.-Biography:...
and Djibril Diop Mambety
Djibril Diop Mambéty
Djibril Diop Mambéty was a Senegalese film director, actor, orator, composer and poet. Though he made only a small number of films, they received international acclaim for their original and experimental cinematic technique and non-linear, unconventional narrative style. Born to a Muslim family...
, one of the few filmmakers from Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
to reach a measure of international influence. His film Waiting for Happiness
Waiting for Happiness
Waiting for Happiness is a 2002 drama film written and directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. It premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section.-Cast:*Khatra Ould Abder Kader as Khatra...
(Heremakono) was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival
2002 Cannes Film Festival
The 2002 Cannes Film Festival started on 15 May and ran until 26 May. The Palme d'Or went to the Polish-French-German-British co-produced film The Pianist directed by Roman Polanski.-Jury:* David Lynch * Sharon Stone* Michelle Yeoh...
official selection under Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...
, winning the FIPRESCI Prize. His 2007 film Bamako
Bamako (film)
Bamako is a 2006 film directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, first released at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival on May 21 and in Manhattan by New Yorker Films on February 14, 2007....
received much attention. Sissako's themes include globalisation, exile and the displacement of people.
Biography
Soon after his birth Sissako's family emigrated to Mali, his father's country, where he completed part of his primary and secondary education. Sissako returned briefly to Mauritania, his mother's land, in 1980. Then he left for MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, where he studied cinema at the VGIK (Federal State Film Institute) from 1983 to 1989. Sissako settled in France at the beginning of the 1990s. In addition to feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
s and short films, Sissako has served on the jury of the Premiers Plans
Premiers Plans
The Premiers Plans festival takes place in Angers every year in January. It is dedicated to European first films, and is meant to help new directors meet their audience....
festival in Angers
Angers
Angers is the main city in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins....
in January 2007, and on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
later in the same year.
Work
- 1989 : Le jeu (The Game) (35mm, 23 minutes), end of studies project. Set in the Mauritanian desert and filmed in TurkmenistanTurkmenistanTurkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
. - 1993 : October (35mm, 37 minutes), filmed in the suburbs of Moscow. Un Certain RegardUn Certain RegardUn Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...
prize winner at the Cannes Film FestivalCannes Film FestivalThe Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. - 1995 : Le chameau et les bâtons flottants (The Camel and the Floating Sticks) (video, 6 minutes), adaptation from the fables of Jean de La FontaineJean de La FontaineJean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional...
, filmed in Mauritania. - 1996 : Sabriya (video, 26 minutes), part of the ArteArteArte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
series, African Dreaming. The action occurs in TunisiaTunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
. - 1997 : Rostov-Luanda (video, 59 minutes), a documentaryDocumentary filmDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
made within the framework of the art exhibition DocumentaDocumentadocumenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
X (KasselKasselKassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
). Sissako searches in AngolaAngolaAngola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
for an old friend, a former guerrilla from the Angolan War of IndependenceAngolan War of IndependenceThe Angolan War of Independence began as an uprising against forced cotton cultivation, and became a multi-faction struggle for control of Portugal's Overseas Province of Angola with three nationalist movements and a separatist movement...
, whom he knew as a student in Moscow 16 years earlier. - 1998 : La Vie Sur TerreLa Vie Sur TerreLa Vie Sur Terre is a 1998 Malian comedy/drama film written and directed by, and starring Abderrahmane Sissako. It is set in the village of Sokolo and depicts rural life on the eve of the 21st century...
(Life on Earth) (35mm, 67 minutes), set on the last day of the millennium (commissioned for the 2000 Seen By... series featuring other directors such as Tsai Ming-liangTsai Ming-liangTsai Ming-liang is one of the most celebrated "Second New Wave" film directors of Taiwanese Cinema, along with earlier contemporaries such as Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang...
and Laurent CantetLaurent CantetLaurent Cantet is a French director, born on June 15, 1961 at Melle . His parents were schoolteachers in Ardilleux.On 25 May 2008, he received the Palme d'Or at the Festival de Cannes 2008, for the movie Entre les murs.- As director :...
) and filmed in SokoloSokoloSokolo is a small town and commune in the Cercle of Niona in the Ségou Region of southern-central Mali. As of 1998 the commune had a population of 17,010.The 1998 film La Vie Sur Terre was made there....
, Mali, Sissako's father's village. Special mention of the jury at the 16th FESPACOPanafrican Film and Television Festival of OuagadougouThe Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou is the largest African film festival, held biennially in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The festival is the biggest regular cultural event on the African continent and it mostly focuses on the African film and African filmmakers...
in 1999. - 2002 : HeremakonoWaiting for HappinessWaiting for Happiness is a 2002 drama film written and directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. It premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section.-Cast:*Khatra Ould Abder Kader as Khatra...
(Waiting for Happiness) (35mm, 90 minutes), fictional film inspired by the filmmaker's exile and brief return to his home in Mauritania in 1980. First Prize (Étalon de Yenenga) at the 18th FESPACO in 2003. - 2006 : BamakoBamako (film)Bamako is a 2006 film directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, first released at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival on May 21 and in Manhattan by New Yorker Films on February 14, 2007....
(115 minutes), images of Mali's capital: everyday lives, a trial implicating the International Monetary FundInternational Monetary FundThe International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
and World BankWorld BankThe World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
for global poverty, a film within a film starring Danny Glover. First recipient of the Council of Europe Film Award (FACE) at the Istanbul International Film FestivalIstanbul International Film FestivalThe Istanbul International Film Festival is the first and oldest international film festival in Turkey, organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts , a non-profit organisation. It is held every year in April in movie theaters in Istanbul, Turkey...
.