In addition to hosting FESPACO as the largest African film festival, Burkina Faso itself has produced internationally renowned filmmakers. Among other things, the films “Wend Kuuni” and “Buud Yam” by the film pioneer Gaston Kaboré as well as “Tilai” by Idrissa Ouedraogo († 18.02.2018) received several great awards, also in Cannes. The films mostly deal with problems of African tradition and are aesthetically and technically influenced by French film. Fanta Régina Nacro, Pierre Yaméogo, Appoline Traore, Paul Roamba, Sanou Kollo David and Dani Kouyaté, the son of the well-known actor Sotigui Kouyaté, also became internationally known.
Gaston Kabore is now a film school instructor.
Comedy-like television series are shot in their own country. “Commissariat de Tampy”, ” Kadi Jolie ” and ” Les Bobodiouf “, “Faits de société “, ” Vis A Vis ” or the series ” Le Testament ” by Appoline Traore, which is not always comedy, are or were particularly popular.
The theater landscape is very colorful. There are many small theaters, some of which try to act as a theater forum to educate people about social and health problems. AIDS, the roles of women or citizenship rights are frequent topics of the “Thêatre de sensiblisation”. Pieces to raise public awareness are often ordered by NGOs.
According to thesciencetutor, but the Burkinabe theater has increasingly become an author’s theater that artistically deals with social issues. For a long time there have been theater structures that create and show theater and that even publish schedules.
Inspired by the Brazilian “Theater Forum”, Prosper Compaore founded the Atelier-Théâtre-Burkinabé in 1978 as a “social theater” or “development theater”.
Etienne Minoungou has often been seen on stage in Germany.
With him, the Récréâtrales, one of the largest theater festivals in Francophone Africa, take place every two years in Ouagadougou. The Récréâtrales are one of the few producing theater festivals in West Africa. Since 2002 you have offered creative teams from all over Africa residencies for pan-African theater productions, training and dramaturgy.
While the FESPACO has its counterpart in the FilmInitiative Köln (17th edition 19.09.-29.09.2019), the Récréâtrale in Cologne takes place every two years in the africologneFESTIVAL, a festival of African theater.
The most famous theaters in Ouagadougou include the ATB mentioned above, the CITO (Carrefour International de Théâtre de Ouagadougou), located next to the Stade municipale.
In addition, ” Espace Culturel Gambidi ” in Dasassgho (east of Ouagadougou), ” Cartel “, ” Bienvenue-Théâtre Bazega “, and ” Compagnie Marbayassa ” are popular theaters.
Opera village by Christoph Schlingensief
As a work of German action art, the construction of an ” opera village ” began a few years ago about 35 km north-east of the capital Ouagadougou, which was inspired by Christoph Schlingensief, who died in 2010, and will be continued by the architect Francis Kéré. A place for intercultural encounters was planned. The platform for creativity and rethinking is based on education, health and culture. Art and life form a unit. Therefore, it was first a school and built as a hospital. According to Schlingensief’s understanding, “If a newborn child cries, that is true opera music”, a maternity ward was created. The architectural and technical quality of the facilities for patients in the area and for 200 schoolchildren is above average by Burkinabe standards. A recording studio was set up with the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf. There is a monthly cultural program (puppet theater, guest performances, concerts), but a festival hall has not yet been built.
Development theorists in particular criticized the project for the fact that it is based on the eccentric idea of a self-centered German artist and that the project is not based on the ideas and initiatives of the Burkinabe cultural scene, which requires diverse funding. Criticized are the high investment and follow-up costs that the project has been able to collect up to now through its intensive media presence and may possibly continue to do so. Too much funding (e.g. from the Goethe Institute) is lost to the poor cultural infrastructure in Ouagadougou and thus to talented Burkinabe artists. Private development associations claim that they could have many more schools and hospitals built for the same cost.
The project learned over time. Not a German opera house should be built in the desert. The expanded term “opera” means the harmony in the diversity of cultural forms of expression. Today it is more about a stage for the settlement of freely developing Burkinabe music, dance and theater that are not tied to a fixed house. The people responsible for the project, led by Schlingensief’s widow Aino Laberenz, therefore try very hard to involve well-known cultural workers from Burkina Faso in planning and events. This creates a new space for independent Burkinabe cultural life. Actor Etienne Minougou, rapper Smockey, filmmaker Gaston Kaboré, choreographer Irène Tassembédo, composer Konomba Traoré and sculptor Siriki Ky are part of the artistic advisory board of the project.
The growing together of creativity in the rural population and cultural life in the metropolis remains a challenge and a bit of hard work in the opera village. (Video)
