Burkina Faso / 2001 / 31mins / Comedy / Drama / Mooré

Bintou wants to make sure that her daughter goes to school, but her husband Abel doesn't think it's worth it because there is only money enough for the boys' education. Bintou won't give up and starts her own business to earn the extra money. But Abel, scared that he is losing control and that Bintou's newfound financial freedom will lead her to adultery, he tries to sabotage her efforts. Joyfully satirical, Bintou pushes aside the stereotypes of dignified African traditions and tackles sexuality, gender relations, and even the fraught relationship between tradition and modernity, with comic results. Winner Best Short film FESPACO 2001 and the Kodak Short Film Award at Cannes Film Festival 2001.

Part of Mama Africa: Growing Up Urban - a selection of short films by African women

Fanta Régina Nacro

Fanta Régina Nacro studied at the African Institute for Cinematic Studies (INAFEC), the national school of Burkina Faso, and the Sorbonne in Paris, where she earned a Master's Degree in Film and Audiovisual Studies. She is the first Burkinabé woman to direct a dramatic film, the short, Un Certain Matin (1991), and has made many short films, which address the AIDS epidemic in Africa, including Vivre Positivement (1993). Her short films Puk Nini (1996) and Un certain matin have been hailed as representing the “African New Wave.” Her last short for the Mama Africa series, A Close-Up on Bintou (2002), won more than twenty prizes in international festivals. Nacro is a founding member of the Guilde Africaine des Realisateurs et Producteurs (The African Guild of Directors and Producers). She was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 1999 for her film, Le Truc de Konate (Konate's Gift). Her first feature The Night of Truth (2004) was featured in the touring program of the Global Film Initiative and received screenwriting honors at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Learn More