Country: Switzerland
Year: 1991
Duration: 90'
Ouédraogo made this film after two feature films that made him internationally famous - Yaaba (1989) and Tilai (1990). These were magnificent works, but they could have had the effect of "enclosing" his cinema in an eventual predictable plot form. Karim Na Sala is a fundamental film, but it was received very badly by people with many preconceptions. The reason was that Ouédraogo acted consistently in an exemplary way. In fact, he put his previous ways of filming into discussion and looked for new forms with which he could keep on taking on the issues that had been defined in his earlier works. Hence this television project was filmed in 16mm, transferred to 35mm and co-produced by the networks Fr3 (France) and ZDF (Germany). These networks broadcast the film in four episodes - Le rencontre, Le Retour au village, La Fugue, and Les Retrouvailles. In the film Ouédraogo tells the story of the events surrounding two adolescents, Karim and Sala, played by Noufou Ouédraogo and Roukietou Barry, the boy and girl who had already played the leads in Yaaba. They meet along a country road. They become friends and accomplices in their games and the adventures that they have in the bush, in the city, and along the roads that lead back to Ouagadougou, Ouaga deux roues. Ouédraogo has them travel, even by train (a means of transportation rarely seen in African cinema). They go on, but never in a tiring way, and the experience seems to have the potential to go on to infinity, charting the duration of a life between signs of the real, the imaginary, and sudden apparitions (the unexpected return of Karim's father).
Biography
film director
Idrissa Ouédraogo
Idrissa Ouédraogo was born in Banfora, Burkina Faso in 1954. He graduated from the African Film Studies Institute in Ouagadougou. He then worked in the governing board of the Film Production of Burkino Faso in 1981. He remained for a period in Kiev. In 1985 he graduated from IDHEC in Paris. He then received a degree in film studies at the University of Paris at the Sorbonne.
FILMOGRAFIA
Poko (cm, 1981), Les Écuelles (cm, 1983), Les Funérailles du Larlé Naaba (co-regia di Pierre Rouamba, cm, 1984), Ouagadougou, Ouaga deux roues (cm, 1985), Issa le tisserand (cm, 1985), Tenga (cm, 1985), Yam Daabo (1986), Yaaba (1989), Tilaï (1990), A Karim na Sala (tv, 1991), Obi (mm, tv, 1991), Samba Traoré (1992), Gorki (cm, tv, 1993), Le cri du cœur (1994), Afrique, mon Afrique (mm, 1994), Kini & Adams (1997), Les Parias du cinéma (cm, 1997), Scénarios du Sahel: Le Guerrier (cm, 1997), Scénarios du Sahel: La Boutique (cm, 1997), Scénarios du Sahel: Pour une fois (cm, 1997), Pleurs de femmes (cm, video, 1999), Kadi Jolie (cm, video, 1999).
Cast
& Credits
Regia, soggetto, sceneggiatura: Idrissa Ouédraogo.
Director of photography: Pierre Laurent Chenieux.
Editor: Dominique B. Martin.
Sound: Christian Evanghelou.
Cast: Noufou Ouédraogo, Roukietou Barry, Hyppolite Warigrowa, Silidou Ouédraogo, Omar Coulibely, Issaka Thombiano, James Campbell.
Production company: Les Films du crépuscule, Ministère de la Cooperation et du Developpement CoProduction company: Fr3, Zdf.
Director of photography: Pierre Laurent Chenieux.
Editor: Dominique B. Martin.
Sound: Christian Evanghelou.
Cast: Noufou Ouédraogo, Roukietou Barry, Hyppolite Warigrowa, Silidou Ouédraogo, Omar Coulibely, Issaka Thombiano, James Campbell.
Production company: Les Films du crépuscule, Ministère de la Cooperation et du Developpement CoProduction company: Fr3, Zdf.