Feature film
Fire!
Ta Dona
Adama Drabo · 1991
Synopsis
In the Bambara village of Farabougou, in southern Mali, bush fires break out and drought is feared. Sidy, a young water and forestry officer from the city, trained in modern techniques, tries to stop them. An oracle announces that an ancient remedy, the “seventh canari”, a plant with seven virtues of which the last has been lost, can put an end to them, and Sidy sets off to find it in Dogon country.
Context
The author's first feature film, it was written by him, shot by Lionel Cousin and edited by Rose Evans, with Fily Traoré in the role of Sidy. It was shown the same year at the Three Continents festival, in a panorama of Malian cinema, then in 1992 at the Rotterdam festival. The director says he approached it like a painter before a blank canvas, to show the complexity of the Mali of his time by combining ancient culture and modern life.
Who it is for
A feature film of one hundred minutes, in Bambara with subtitles, combining a coming-of-age story with a village chronicle.
Prizes and reception
Selected at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section in 1991, and winner of the Oumarou Ganda Prize at Fespaco the same year.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.