2024-02-02 01:00:00
The film submitted by Burkina Faso to the Oscars focuses on the fate reserved for women by jihadist terrorists who crisscross the Sahel.
Sira (Nafissatou Cissé) crosses part of the Sahel with her family, on the back of a camel, to find Jean Sidi (Abdramane Barry), her fiancé. The mood is almost upbeat, despite the dangerous nature of the journey due to the presence of terrorists. Additionally, Sira is Muslim, like her father and the rest of her family. His right-hand man, Moustapha (Mike Danon), views Sira’s union with a farmer, who is also a Christian, even a rich one, with a very negative eye.
The worst will soon arrive. A group of jihadists invades the nomads’ camp, kills the men and women. Sila, who opposes the leader of the attackers, Yere (Lazare Minoungou), is raped by the latter and left for dead in the sand. The 17-year-old gets up and walks. But her steps lead her to the military camp of her attacker, where there are women taken from their communities and raped daily. The young girl, who discovers her pregnancy, decides to hide in the rocks overlooking the camp and steal water and provisions from the jihadists.
Living in the shadow of terrorists, pregnant, Sira also tries, through nocturnal incursions, to convince women to rebel against their captors.
Burkina Faso’s submission to the Oscars (the film was not included in the final selection of nominees), Sira an African heroine by Apolline Traoré won the Panorama Audience Prize at the 2023 Berlinale in addition to being presented at TIFF last year. The quality of the performance of certain actors sometimes leaves something to be desired and several script errors prevent us from fully subscribing to this proposition which is nevertheless exceptional since it places women at the front of the stage, an aspect touched upon by the remarkable Timbuktu by Abderrahmane Sissako who appeared in 2014.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Sira an African heroine hits screens across the province from February 1.
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