Sia, Le Rev Du Python
Director: Dani Kouyate
Country: Burkina Faso
Year: 2001
Runtime: 96 minutes
Language: Bambara with English subtitles
Awards: Namur International Festival of French - Golden Bayard, Ouagadougou Panafrican Film and Television Festival -European Union Award/INALCO Award/Jury Special Prize/ OCIC Award
Inspired by a play by Mauritanian writer Moussa Diagana, this film brings an ancient African legend to the screen. Kombi, a poverty-stricken city, suffers under the yoke of a tyrant king who is advised by his priests to sacrifice a young virgin to a traditional snake god. Sia, a beautiful young woman, is chosen, but her fiancé takes up arms against the proposed ritual, dividing the village. The subsequent story deals with a range of issues around the corruption that power brings and the duty of the honorable person to oppose it, familiar themes for Kouyate, many of whose films deal with social and class conflict in modern-day Africa. (Synopsis by the Durban International Film.)
Principal Cast: Fatoumata Diawara, Sotigui Kouyate, Balla Habib Dembele, Hamadoun Kassogue, Ibrahim Baba Cisse
Writers: Moussa Diagana, Dani Kouyaté
Producers: Claude Gilaizeau, Elisabeth Lopez, Sylvie Maigne, Sekou Traore Cinematographer: Robert Millié
Film Editor: Zoé Durouchoux