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The Silence of the Forest( 2003) and Governors of the Dew( 2018)
Each film was guided by the same principle: to portray Africa with dignity, without condescension, and without an imposed outside perspective. With * Le Silence de la forêt *( co-directed with Central African filmmaker Didier Ouénangaré) and * Gouverneurs de la Rosée *— an adaptation of Jacques Roumain’ s novel— he continues this quest for a pan-African narrative that transcends the continent’ s linguistic and geographical boundarie.
An artist’ s clear-eyed view of his time
Flashmag! Issue 173 June 2026
Bassek Ba Kobhio did not mince words when discussing the structural contradictions of African cinema. He sharply criticized the pitfalls of external funding:“ In terms of creating new cinematic styles, we haven’ t made much progress, because— whether consciously or not— we were led to make hybrid films due to external funding that sometimes sidelined the interests of our audience in favor of those of the funders.” On the subject of criticism, he called for a sovereign perspective:“ African critics must evaluate our works from within, to counterbalance the not always positive influence of analyses of our works viewed through external eyes and sensibilities. Japanese and French critics do not view a French film in the same way.” And on the role of festivals, he was philosophical:“ Fespaco has undoubtedly contributed to the development of cinema in Black Africa. The biennial event in Ouagadougou is like a horizon toward which all efforts are directed. The number of films produced on the continent would be reduced by at least half if Fespaco did not exist.”
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