The Siren of Faso Fani

La Sirène de Faso Fani

DIRECTOR: Michel K. Zongo   COUNTRIES: France, Burkina Faso, Germany, Qatar   YEAR: 2014   LANGUAGE(S): French   SUBTITLES: English   RUNNING TIME: 90 min  

SECTION: International Forum 2015

SYNOPSIS

The Faso Fani textile factory in Koudougou, Burkina Faso’s third-largest city, was forced to shut down in 2001 despite having plenty of orders. It was a consequence of the factory’s privatization after pressure from the World Bank and the IMF in the 1980s.

Michel K. Zongo seeks out the victims and comes upon dynamic men and women who refuse to bow down. The film is an homage to a specifically African form of resistance in the face of the madness of globalization.

What is fascinating in THE SIREN OF FASO FANI are the city’s inhabitants: They have a will to master their own lives and they explain their problems eloquently.

“The message that I would give the World Bank and the IMF is that the research on which they base their decisions is often wrong. By consequence, they do not destroy their own homes, their own countries, but those that are exposed. And it’s the people in these countries who have to suffer”. That’s how Yamba Gilbert Nabi, a former worker at the factory, analyzes the situation in Burkina Faso. It’s an analysis of a reality that has now become dismally pertinent for many people in Europe, too, and one that many of Greece’s inhabitants would probably subscribe to.

MICHEL K. ZONGO
Michel K. Zongo is a director, a cameraman and a scriptwriter from Burkina Faso. He followed a video-shoot training course at the Burkina Faso National Cinematography Center (CNC), an on-set and reporting cameraman training course at the Burkina Faso National Television (TNB), and a training course as first assistant operator at Cinédoc Films, a production company in France. In 2010 he co-founded Diam Production, a structure for documentary film production which co-produced with Cinédoc Films his feature-length documentary ESPOIR VOYAGE. His latest film THE SIREN OF FASO FANI was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival.

FILMOGRAPHY

Ti-Tiimou (2009), Sibi, l’ame du violon (2011), Espoir voyage (2012), The Siren of Faso Fani (2015)

PRODUCER: Christian Lelong   CAMERA: Michel K. Zongo   EDITOR: François Sculier   MUSIC: Smockey

PRODUCTION: Perfect Shot Films Gmbh, Cinedoc Films, Diam Production   WORLD SALES: Pierre Cavé, Cinedoc Films