Sira
Director Apolline Traoré was a guest at the 2017 edition of WCA with her film Frontières, which won the WCA Audience Award. It tells the story of four strong and independent women travelling through West Africa by bus. Six years later, her new film Sira is part of the festival programme, with a story once again revolving around a strong woman: Sira, who is struggling to survive in an area where violence and lawlessness are the norm.
The young Fulani nomad Sira is travelling through the desert with her family to marry her childhood sweetheart. Her father has agreed to the marriage, even though she is a Muslim and her groom to be a Christian. On their way through the desert, Sira and her family are attacked by Islamist terrorists. Sira is raped and left for dead. Refusing to give up, she manages to find shelter in a cave not far from the terrorist camp and starts planning her revenge. Awarded at the 2023 Berlinale and the Fespaco Pan African Film Festival in Ouagadougou.
Q&As with director
Wed 23 Aug | 21:30 | Rialto De Pijp
Thu 24 Aug | 19:00 | Cinema De Vlugt
Sat 26 Aug | 21:30 | De Balie
Apolline TRAORÉ (1976, Burkina Faso) studied in Boston. Her graduation film The Price of Ignorance won the Jury Prize at the 2001 Fespaco Pan-African Film and Television Festival. After working in Hollywood, she returned to Burkina Faso to make films about Africa. She sat on the WCA Jury in 2017, her film Frontières taking that year’s WCA Audience Award. Sira won the Panorama Audience Award at the 2023 Berlinale.
