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He cut his teeth in the film industry behind the scenes. He began as an intern and assistant on a series of documentaries produced by Cameroon’ s Ministry of Information and Culture, then worked as first assistant on Claire Denis’ s * Chocolat *( 1987). This experience working alongside a French filmmaker who was filming colonial Africa from an outside perspective only reinforced his conviction: Africa must tell its own story.
The Calling:“ A filmmaker has a duty to be committed”
When asked why he chose film, Bassek Ba Kobhio speaks of a fateful encounter with the great Senegalese filmmaker Sembène Ousmane.
Flashmag! Issue 173 June 2026
“ When it comes to movies, Sembène Ousmane’ s * Le Mandat *, * The Bridge on the River Kwai *, * High Noon *, and * The Eternal Return * were among the first films I saw, and they’ re what made me decide to pursue this career. But more than anything, the writer and filmmaker Sembène Ousmane, whom I had always dreamed of emulating, is the one who truly led me into the world of cinema.”
This guiding philosophy speaks volumes about his ambition. For him, making films in Africa cannot be a trivial endeavor.“ I see my role as eminently social, strongly political, but also entertaining. While elsewhere the filmmaker’ s primary role is to entertain— a role that is, after all, ours as well— the situation in Africa is such that the filmmaker has an obligation to engage, in the sense Jean-Paul Sartre intended it, that is, an obligation to question and enlighten others. » He looks back nostalgically on his early days, without false modesty but with a lucidity all his own:“ I remember my first steps as a young man who was lucky, who dreamed of making films and who actually did so. Having not received a university scholarship to study film, coming from a background in sociology and literature, I was lucky and perhaps had more advantages than others to succeed in this profession.”
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