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Sira
Sira, une Héroïne Africaine
Burkina Faso / France / Senegal / Germany 2023
produced by Apolline Traoré, Denis Cougnaud, Guillaume Orignac, Souleymane Kébé, Sarika Hemi Lakhani, Sara Bökemeyer, Verena Kurz, Sidi-Mohamed Cheiguer (executive) for Les Films Selmon, Araucania Films, Sunuy Films, One Fine Day Films, Canal+, TV5
directed by Apolline Traoré
starring Nafisatou Cisse, Mike Danon, Lazare Minoungou, Abdramane Barry, Ruth Werner, Ildevert Meda, Nathalie Vairac, Oumou Ba, Seydou Diallo, Augusta Palenfo, Landy Noura Gala, Kétoura Simpore, Naomie Nemlin, Leila Tall, Kelvin Kafui, Moïse Tiemtore, Rihanata Zongo, Djamila Barry, Hamadoun Kassogué, Aimé Parfait Bationo, Samba Diallo, Amadou Ba, Sidi-Mohamed Cheiguer, Moustapha Brahim, Mohamed Salem Amar, Abdou Razak Traoré, and the voices of Moussa Edward Ouedraogo, Missa N'Dry, Emmanuel Uriel Kouma, Arnaud Ulrich Ouedraogo
written by Apolline Traoré, music by Cyril Morin
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Somewhere in the Sahel region, Africa: Sira (Nafisatou Cisse) leads a
simple but reasonable happy life, crossing the desert with her tribe of
nomads, and looking forward to nothing more than getting married to her
farmer fiancé Jean Sidi (Abdramane Barry). But then the tribe is attacked
by a group of armed men led by Yere (Lazare Minoungou), who kill pretty
much all the menfolks of their tribe, steal their goats, and then Sira is
dragged off by Yere himself who brutally rapes her then leaves her to die
- only die Sira doesn't, as she proves to be remarkably resilient and
resourceful, following the tyre tracks of Yere's car to his gang's
hideout, finding shelter in nearby caves and sneaking into camp repeatedly
for food and water. It soon becomes clear that Yere and company are
Islamist terrorists, yet that doesn't keep them from one day bringing in a
bunch of girls as sex slaves. With them, Sira plans a revolt - but that
only leads to one of the girls (Ruth Werner) being tortured almost to
death by the Islamists. Problem is, Sira soon finds out she's pregnant,
impregnated by Yere himself, and it gets harder and harder for her to move
around. On top of that, one of Yere's soldiers (Ildevert Meda) eventually
finds her hiding place ... In the meantime, Jean Sidi sets out to find
Sira in the vast desert - but horrendous planning sees to it that he soon
gets lost. And then Yere finds out he's after him and orders him to be
killed - if found first that is ... Sira is above all a
pretty awesome tale of female empowerment and of overcoming all odds. And
it also introduces the audience to a world foreign to most of us, but not
by relying too much on ethnographical kitsch but by telling a compelling
and despite all cultural differences relatable story, also of course
helped by a strong Nafisatou Cisse leading a strong cast. And a
directorial effort that gets the most out of its locale without drowning
the story in overwhelming pictures also contributes in making this a
worthwhile and memorable film.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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