Ousmane Sembène (director)
Sembene Ousmane was born in Ziguinchor, Senegal, in 1923. In 1942, he was drafted into the French colonial army's Tirailleurs sénégalais, and in 1946, he fled illegally to France. There, he worked odd jobs (mechanic, dock worker, bricklayer, etc.). In the mid-1950s, he began writing, his first passion. LE DOCKER NOIR was his first novel. In 1960, he published his beautiful book LES BOUTS DE BOIS DE DIEU. Sembene became interested in cinema. He thought about an approach that would appeal to everyone; Illa defines it as “political, polemical, and popular.” At the age of 38, he studied film at the Gorky Studio in Moscow and learned to become a director under Donskoi and Serguei Guerassimov. In 1962, he made his first short film, BOROM SARRET (Le Bonhommecharrette). In 1964, he made his second short film, NIAYE, which won an award at the Locarno Film Festival. In 1966, he made LA NOIRE DE..., which was also the continent's first “Negro-African” feature film. This was followed by numerous films that bear witness to contemporary African society, including LE MANDAT, XALA, CEEDO, CAMP DE THIAROYE, and GUELWAAR, all of which won awards at numerous festivals. In 1999, he paid tribute to African women with FAAT KINÉ, the first part of his triptych “HÉROÏSME AU QUOTIDIEN”; MOOLAADÉ is the second part. The third part, LA CONFRÉRIE DES RATS, is currently in development.
