Guinea and France / 1992 / 90mins / Comedy, Drama / Malinké and French

The Golden Ball is an engaging tale that follows Bandian, a boy of twelve years, who runs very fast and is a boy-wonder on the soccer field. His friends call him the turbo Makono, named after the village where he lives, and predict that he will eventually become a international soccer player.

Cheik Doukoure

Cheik Doukouré was born in Kankan, Guinea in 1943. After studying in Conakry, he moved to Paris in 1964, where he earned a degree of modern literature from the Sorbonne in 1968. An accomplished actor, he has appeared in numerous stage plays and films. He worked with directors like Audiard, Mocky, and Girod. On stage, he acted in plays directed by Chéreau, Hossein, and Mondy. His screen writing credits include work on Jacques Champreux’s Bako, l’autre rive (1977) and Marco Ferreri’s Y a bon les Blancs (1987). White Ebony (Blanc d’ébène) marked Doukouré’s feature film debut in 1991. He then directed The Golden Ball (Le Ballon d’or - 1992) which, with 450,000 admissions in France was one of the most successful films from Africa. In 2003 he made Paris selon Moussa (Paris According to Moussa) which earned him the Award for Best Actor at the 18th edition of Fespaco (Pan-African Film Festival of Ouagadougou). Learn More