Captain Thomas Sankara was the leader of the Burkinabe Revolution. This film is a biographical profile of the revolutionary, the improvements he generated in his country and the new socio-political dimension he instituted in Burkina Faso.
How to evoke the memory of a figure disappeared without falling into the trap of the myth? On what historical truth be based? And this truth exists? Balufu cites Sankara input to answer these questions: "I believe there are three ways to be: as others perceive you, as it sees itself, and the truth is that between these two visions of a single individual ". It was on this vision that he built his film: a parade of vintage photographs, family members are keys by the portrait of the man before Sankara speaks for itself. More than ever, the memory is not just a matter of remembrance it is affirmation of dignity. The Upper Volta will be on August 2, 1984 "the homeland of free men and dignified." The success of these pictures is to provide background documents the consonance of the news. The filmmaker's voice just add the sensitivity of a human reflection of a poetic resumed as a leitmotif: "The sun never sets: the man away from the light."

A film by Balufu BAKUPA-KANYINDA

Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaïre) / France / United Kingdom, 1991, Documentary, 26 min, color, 16 mm

Original Title: THOMAS SANKARA, L'ESPOIR ASSASSINÉ
Other Title: "Thomas Sankara, le baobab de Dagnoen"
Language: French w/ English subtitles

Director: Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda
Screenwriter: Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda
Cinematographer: Shirikiana AINA

DVD available
To be ordered from ArtMattan Productions (www.africanfilm.com)

Production:
Channel Four (United Kingdom).
Dipanda Yo ! (Congo DRC)
Myriapodus Films (France)

Distribution:
Myriapodus Films (France)
ArtMattan Productions (USA)

World Sales:
Myriapodus Films (France)