Films in shooting or post-production
A GOLDEN LIFE
Synopsis
At the gold-panning site of Kalgouli in Burkina Faso, sixteen-year-old Rasmané descends more than one hundred metres in small mines to extract gold. Fearful of accidents, plagued by his parents’ doubt, Rasmané makes his way through a fierce adult world hoping to emancipate himself and find a better life—at the cost of his innocence. Gold-panning is corruptive, making one pass brutally from childhood to adulthood—just as, in parallel, it corrupts the natural environment through pollution and destruction.
Isso Emmanuel Bationo
Gladys Joujou
Rémi Durel
Merveilles Production (Benin)
Faissol Gnonlonfin
[email protected]
Les Films de la Caravane (France)
Madeline Robert
[email protected]
IMEDIA (Burkina Faso)
Fernand Ernest Kabore
[email protected]
Director’s statement
With A Golden Life, I film Bolo’s evolution from sixteen to nineteen years old in the mine galleries as well as in the yaar, where he meets twelve- and thirteen-year-old Missa and Dramane. In these worlds, destinies are similar and futures seem to follow the same path. In the yaar, still shots capture the daily life in a playful and dreamy manner. Little by little, opening wider shows the resemblance that characterises the gold-diggers in their dreams and work. Like the nature that surrounds them, innocence and dreaming crumble as ordeals unfold. The duality of yaar and mine gallery is accompanied by the duality of the depths of the gallery and the exterior of the site to translate the effects of capitalism—which confronts the exploited and the exploiter—as in the sequence where Bolo’s team is worried about being evacuated by the “white man’s machine” that is prospecting.
Biographies
Boubacar Sangaré is a filmmaker, author, and lawyer from Burkina Faso. His first documentary, A Golden Life (2023), had its world premiere in the Forum section of the Berlin International Film Festival, has been screened at more than 80 festivals, and won some 15 awards. His second feature-length documentary, Djéliya, mémoire du mandingue, scheduled for release in 2026, combines cinéma-vérité and staged scenes. Les Dieux délinquants is the first fiction film he has developed. In addition to his career as a filmmaker, Sangaré is a legal consultant in the fields of cinema and audiovisual media.
Beninese producer Faissol Gnonlonfin develops audio-visual and cinematographic works by young African, European and Caribbean writers and directors. He is interested in creative documentaries that are rooted in reality, history and arts and culture. He also produces short and feature-length films for cinema and television series. He supports films by young filmmakers who examine society’s socio-political and economic issues. His productions have been selected for several international film festivals and have received numerous awards.
€357 270
€240 770
CNC – Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, Fonds Jeune Création Francophone, Fonds Image de la Francophonie, TV5 Monde, Périphérie Cinéma Documentaire
March 2017 - March 2022, Kalgouli (Burkina Faso)
January - February 2023
Sound editing, mixing
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