Library Weekly

On 18 February 2018, Burkinabé filmmaker Idrissa Ouédraogo died at the age of 64 in Ouagadougou. His work often explored the conflict between rural and city life and tradition and modernity in his native Burkina Faso and elsewhere in Africa. He is best known for his feature film Tilaï, which won the Grand Prix at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival and Samba Traoré (1993), which was nominated for the Silver Bear award at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.

Ouedraogo was born on  21 January 1954, in Banfora, Burkina Faso. His parents were farmers, and he grew up in a village outside Ouagadougou. He was sent to Ouagadougou for further education, where he attended the African Institute for Cinema Studies (Institut Africain d’Etudes Cinématographiques) completing his studies in 1981 with a masters. After studying in Kiev in the then USSR he moved to Paris, where he graduated from the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC) in 1985 with a 'Diplôme d'études approfondies', a doctoral programme degree from the Sorbonne.

In the 1980s, Ouedraogo formed his own production company 'The Future of Films' which later became 'Les Films de la Plaine' and he began to make films. By the late 1980s and 1990s he was meeting with his major successes (Yam Daabo [1987], Yaaba [1989], Tilaï [1990], Le cri du Coeur [1994]). He continued to make feature films until 2006. By then he had turned increasingly to television production.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Selected publications and films

Forum in Celebration of Idrissa Ouedraogo.
In: African studies review, volume 61, issue 3, p. 178-213 (2018).
Includes: “The world should be open to film”: an interview with Idrissa Ouedraogo by Melissa Thackway

Postcolonial African cinema : ten directors / David Murph; Patrick Williams. - Manchester [etc.] : Manchester University Press [etc.], cop. 2007

Le marché des deux roues au Burkina : un film / Idrissa Ouedraogo. - Paris : La Médiathèque des Trois Mondes, 2001

Le commerce des médicaments au Niger / Damien Glez; Margot Marguerite; Idrissa Ouedraogo. - Paris : TV5, cop.2000

Yaaba  / Idrissa Ouedraogo. - [Amsterdam] : Cinemien Homescreen, 1996

Le cri du coeur / Idrissa Ouedraogo. - [S.l.] : Les films de la plaine, 1994

Samba Traoré / Idrissa Ouedraogo. - [S.l.] : Les Films de la Plaine [etc.], 1992

Karim et Sala = A Harim na Sala  / Idrissa Ouedraogo. - [S.l.] : Arcadia Films, 1991

Tilai͏̈ / Idrissa Ouedraogo. - Paris : La Médiathèque des trois mondes, 1990

Yam daabo = The choice / Idrissa Ouedraogo. - [S.l. : BBC2], 1986

Émission spéciale Idrissa Ouédraogo / Tous les Cinémas du Monde, 2019

Timeline of Burkinabé film directors via Wikidata and DBpedia