{"id":243145,"date":"2025-02-20T15:29:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T15:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/20\/souleymane-cisse-celebrated-malian-filmmaker-dies-at-84-2\/"},"modified":"2025-02-20T15:29:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T15:29:18","slug":"souleymane-cisse-celebrated-malian-filmmaker-dies-at-84-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/20\/souleymane-cisse-celebrated-malian-filmmaker-dies-at-84-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Souleymane Ciss\u00e9, Celebrated Malian Filmmaker, Dies at 84"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/20\/multimedia\/20xp-cisse-tjhv\/20xp-cisse-tjhv-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Souleymane Ciss\u00e9, Celebrated Malian Filmmaker, Dies at 84\" title=\"Souleymane Ciss\u00e9, Celebrated Malian Filmmaker, Dies at 84\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Souleymane Ciss\u00e9, an award-winning writer and director who became the first Black African filmmaker to win the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, died on Wednesday in Bamako, Mali. He was 84.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His death was confirmed by Fran\u00e7ois Margolin, a French film producer and a close friend of Mr. Ciss\u00e9\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Ciss\u00e9 had just appeared at a news conference on Wednesday morning to present two prizes ahead of the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, known as Fespaco, where he had been set to head the jury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After the news conference \u2014 where he was \u201ctalking and joking\u201d \u2014 Mr. Ciss\u00e9 went to take a nap and didn\u2019t wake up, Mr. Margolin said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Ciss\u00e9 was catapulted to worldwide fame with the release in 1987 of \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1987\/10\/08\/movies\/film-festival-yeelen-based-on-myths-from-mali.html\" title=\"\">Yeelen<\/a>\u201d (\u201cLight\u201d in his native Bambara). The film won the jury prize at Cannes and was nominated as the best foreign film in the 1989 Spirit Awards. The director Martin Scorsese called the film \u201cone of the great revelatory experiences of my moviegoing life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Ciss\u00e9 had been energetic until the end of his life, Mr. Margolin said, working and traveling around the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHe was never an old man,\u201d said Mr. Margolin, who said he last saw his friend about six months ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Ciss\u00e9 directed his first feature-length movie, \u201cDen Muso,\u201d (\u201cThe Young Girl\u201d) in 1975. The movie, in Bambara, is about a mute girl who becomes pregnant after being raped and is subsequently shunned by her family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Ciss\u00e9 \u201cpulled no punches with his debut feature,\u201d the Museum of Modern Art said in 2022, when it hosted a viewing of the film as part of its annual <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/12\/movies\/moma-black-cinema.html\" title=\"\">International Festival of Film Preservation<\/a>. The Malian authorities censored the film, and Mr. Ciss\u00e9 was briefly imprisoned on what MoMA described as \u201ctrumped-up charges.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But it was \u201cYeelen,\u201d Mr. Ciss\u00e9\u2019s fourth feature, that cemented his position as a top filmmaker. The movie is about a young man with magical powers who travels to his uncle with the request to fight his sorcerer father. It \u201crecreates the pre-modern world of the Bambara culture, where the only hint of the industrial age is the presence of a blacksmith,\u201d <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1987\/10\/08\/movies\/film-festival-yeelen-based-on-myths-from-mali.html\" title=\"\">The Times wrote in 1987<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Scorsese has said the film helped inspire him to start the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criterion.com\/boxsets\/1021-martin-scorsese-s-world-cinema-project\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">World Cinema Project<\/a>, a nonprofit that restores neglected films around the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cSouleymane\u2019s work has had a deep and lasting effect on me,\u201d Mr. Scorsese wrote in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Souleymane Ciss\u00e9 was born on April 21, 1940, in Bamako, Mali\u2019s capital. He spent his high school years in Dakar, Senegal, before going to the Russian State University of Cinematography in Moscow on a scholarship, according to the Cannes Film Festival. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Ciss\u00e9\u2019s survivors include his daughters Fatou, a filmmaker who worked closely with her father, and Mariam.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Ciss\u00e9\u2019s most recent credit was the 2015 film \u201cO Ka\u201d (\u201cOur House\u201d), his fifth <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/05\/13\/movies\/at-cannes-reality-intrudes-in-a-make-believe-world.html\" title=\"\">to debut at Cannes<\/a>. The movie tells the story of how police officers forcibly removed Mr. Ciss\u00e9\u2019s four sisters from their childhood home in 2008.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 2023, Cannes honored Mr. Ciss\u00e9 again, this time with the Carrosse d\u2019Or \u2014 the Golden Coach Award \u2014 a prize given by the Society of French Directors. Mr. Ciss\u00e9 became the second African filmmaker to win that prize after <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/09\/08\/movies\/ousmane-sembene-film-retrospective.html\" title=\"\">Ousmane Semb\u00e8ne<\/a>, a Senegalese director, who won the prize at the 2005 festival.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIf the profession recognizes the films you have made,\u201d Mr. Ciss\u00e9 <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CumUudttw_o\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">told a French radio broadcaster<\/a> in 2023. \u201cI think it\u2019s an exceptional reward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In that interview, he also expressed optimism for the future of African filmmaking, saying that he did not think it would take 15 more years for another director from the continent to win the Golden Coach Award.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He also emphasized the importance of African filmmaking. \u201cAfrica cannot be transported to France or Europe or the United States,\u201d he said. \u201cAfrica is transported through images.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/20\/movies\/souleymane-cisse-dead.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Souleymane Ciss\u00e9, an award-winning writer and director who became the first Black African filmmaker to win the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, died on Wednesday in Bamako, Mali. He was 84. His death was confirmed by Fran\u00e7ois Margolin, a French film producer and a close friend of Mr. Ciss\u00e9\u2019s. Mr. Ciss\u00e9 had just [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/20\/multimedia\/20xp-cisse-tjhv\/20xp-cisse-tjhv-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[188982,188981,4495,188985,163460,16,11835,188986,1212,188984,188983],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243147,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243145\/revisions\/243147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}