In addition to the Golden Stallion, Tunisia leaves with several prizes including those for female and male interpretation awarded to all the actors and actresses of “Sous les figs”.
Tunisian director Youssef Chebbi won, on Saturday March 4, the Yennenga Gold Stallion at the 28th Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (Fespaco) for his film Ashkal. The young director, born in Tunis in 1984, was absent from the ceremony, where his prize was awarded by the transitional president of Burkina Faso, captain Ibrahim Traoré. Saluting a “extreme rigor” and one “work out of the ordinary”, the president of the jury, the Tunisian Dora Bouchoucha, specified that the Etalon d’or had been awarded to Youssef Chebbi unanimously. In this thriller that takes place in the Gardens of Carthage, a neighborhood abandoned after the fall of President Ben Ali in 2011, two police officers investigate mysterious immolations.
Tunisia in force
The director is ahead of two women, the Burkinabè Apolline Traoré for Sira who receives the Silver Stallion, and the Kenyan Angela Wamai for Shimoni, awarded the Bronze Stallion. Since its creation in 1969, no woman has won the supreme award of this great African film festival. 170 works were in the running in various categories for this edition on the theme “African Cinemas and Cultures of Peace”.
Tunisia leaves with other prizes, including those for male and female interpretation which go to all the actors and actresses of Under the Figs, by director Erige Sehiri. The film features “modern and connected” young Tunisian women in disadvantaged rural areas. The best screenplay was awarded to Caftan Blue by Moroccan Maryam Touzani. The feature film tells the story of a close-knit couple, who lives with a heavy secret: the husband’s homosexuality.
Fifteen fiction feature films vied for the supreme reward, the Yennenga Gold Stallion, a prize worth 20 million CFA francs (about 30,000 euros).
Awards
Here are the winners of the 28th edition of the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (Fespaco), the largest African film festival:
Feature fiction
-Yennenga Gold Standard: Ashkal by Youssef Chebbi (Tunisia)
-Silver standard: Sira by Apolline Traoré (Burkina Faso)
– Bronze standard: Shimoni by Angela Wamai (Kenya)
– Best Actor Award: all the actors of under the figs by Erige Sehiri (Tunisia)
– Prize for female interpretation: all the actresses of under the figs by Erige Sehiri, (Tunisia)
– Best Decor: Mami Wata by Fiery Obasi (Nigeria)
– Best Editing: Abu Saddam by Nadine Khan (Egypt)
– Best Screenplay: The blue of the caftan by Maryam Touzani (Morocco)
– Image price: Mami Wata by Fiery Obasi (Nigeria)
– Sound price: Ashkal by Youssef Chebbi (Tunisia)
– Best Music: Our lady of the Chinese shop by Ery Claver (Angola)
– Special Mention of the Jury: look at the stars by David Constantin (Mauritius)
short fiction
– Poulain d’or fiction short film: Will my parents come to see meby Mo Harawe (Somalia)
– Poulain d’argent fiction short film: A-doll by Andriaminosa Hary and Joel Rakotovelo (Madagascar)
-Poulain de bronze fiction short film: Tsutsue by Amartei Armar (Ghana)
Documentaries
– Feature-length documentary gold standard: Omi Nobu/The New Man by Carlos Yuri Ceuninck (Cape Verde)
– Feature Documentary Silver Stallion: We students by Rafiki Fariala (Central African Republic)
– Feature-length Documentary Bronze Stallion: Guardian of the Worldsby Leïla Chaïbi (Algeria)
– Poulain d’or documentary short film: Blind spot by Lofti Achour (Tunisia)
– Poulain d’argent documentary short film: Katanga nation by Beza Hailu Lemma (Ethiopia)
-Poulain de bronze documentary short film: Kelasi by Fransix Tenda Lomba (DRC)
Special Jury Mention: The messenger of God by Amina Mamani (Niger) and Cuba in Africa by Negash Abdurahman (Ethiopia)
Perspectives section
-Paul Robeson Prize for Documentary Feature Film The specter of Boko Haram by Cyrielle Raingou (Cameroon)