African cinema crosses ‘Borders’

Ouagadougou. An African road movie about four women wowed its audience Sunday as it kicked off the Panafrican cinema and television festival (Fespaco), a showcase for the continent’s burgeoning film industry.

“Borders” (“Frontieres”) directed by Apolline Traore, a Fespaco laureate in 2013, sweeps across Africa as its protagonists journey through Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Benin on their way to Nigeria.

Along the way the women -- Ivorian, Senegalese, Burkinabe and Nigerian actresses -- are spared nothing as they are beset by customs officers, thieves, murderers and rapists.

The film -- the first feature-length film to show at the festival -- deals with “the bravery of women,” Traore told AFP at the festival in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou.

“There is a tendency to portray women, particularly African women, as housewives, sweet gentle women. But it is important to show another side,” the Burkinabe director added.

She said the film also highlights a growing regional problem.

“We talk a lot in cinema and in the wider world of the journeys from Africa to Europe, but travelling in the region is itself is a big problem that no one talks about.”

She denounced the lack of integration in the region despite official policies on free circulation of people and goods.

Financed with public funds and by French telecoms group Orange, the film will be distributed throughout francophone Africa and in Europe, Traore said.

It is in competition with another 163 films all hoping to win the “Etalon de Yennenga” (“Stallion of Yennenga) top prize.

Another 50 films will be shown out of competition.

Alongside the Fespaco festival, the 18th MICA festival for African film and television output got underway in Ouagadougou on Sunday. (AFP)