Adama Drabo was a Mali

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...

an filmmaker and playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

.

Biography

Adama Drabo showed an interest in film since his childhood in the Malian capital of Bamako. His career in film began as a hobby - for ten years, he was a schoolteacher in a Malian village, and in his spare time he painted and wrote plays.

In 1979, he joined the Centre national de production cinématographique (CNPC). There, he worked with director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 Cheick Oumar Sissoko

Cheick Oumar Sissoko

Cheick Oumar Sissoko is a Malian film director and politician.-Biography:As a student in Paris, Cheick Oumar Sissoko obtained a DEA in African History and Sociology and a diploma in History and Cinema from the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales...

 as an assistant director on the 1986 film Nyamanton and the 1989 film Finzan.

In 1988, he produced a short film, Nieba, la journée d'une paysanne.

In 1991, he produced his first full-length film, Ta Dona

Fire! (1991 film)

Fire! is a 1991 Malian drama film directed by Adama Drabo. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Djeneba Diawara - Koro* Mamadou Fomba* Balla Moussa Keita - Fakoro...

(Au feu!), which was nominated for the Gold Lion prize at the Locarno International Film Festival

Locarno International Film Festival

The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...

, and featured at FESPACO. It was also screened in the 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...

 section at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival

1991 Cannes Film Festival

- Jury :*Roman Polanski *Férid Boughedir *Whoopi Goldberg *Margaret Menegoz *Natalia Negoda *Alan Parker *Jean-Paul Rappeneau *Hans Dieter Seidel *Vittorio Storaro...

.

In 1997, he produced Taafé Fanga, which tells the story of a Dogon

Dogon people

The Dogon are an ethnic group living in the central plateau region of Mali, south of the Niger bend near the city of Bandiagara in the Mopti region. The population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000 The Dogon are best known for their religious traditions, their mask dances, wooden sculpture and...

 woman who finds a magical mask and uses its powers to reverse gender role

Gender role

Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...

s in her village. This film was featured in film festivals worldwide, including at Cannes

Cannes

Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....

, Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, Namur

Namur (city)

Namur is a city and municipality in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia....

, and Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic center of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 1,475,223 . The city's name is often shortened to Ouaga. The inhabitants are called ouagalais...

.
He died in Algeria from cardiac arrest during the "Festival culturel panafricain d’Alger".

Filmography

• Nieba, la journée d'une paysanne (Nieba, the Day of a Peasant Woman) (1988)
• Ta Dona (Au feu!)
  Fire! (1991 film)
  Fire! is a 1991 Malian drama film directed by Adama Drabo. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Djeneba Diawara - Koro* Mamadou Fomba* Balla Moussa Keita - Fakoro...
  
  (1991)
• Taafé Fanga (1997) (The Power of the Skirt)
• Faantan Fanga (2009) (The Power of the Poor) (mostly written the wrong way as "Fantan fanga" which would mean "The Power of the Oprhant" in Bambara
  Bambara language
  Bambara, more correctly known as Bamanankan , its designation in the language itself , is a language spoken in Mali by as many as six million people...
  
  )

External links