Burkina Faso / 2020 / 80mins / Documentary / French

On October 15, 1987, the leader of the Burkinabè revolution was killed in a coup. This was not the first putsch in this country in the heart of West Africa, but its tragic end, resulting in the assassination of Thomas Sankara and his twelve companions, shocked the world. Sankara, whose presidency began when he was 33 and lasted only four years, left an indelible mark on the world with his charisma, audacity, Pan-Africanism, and youthfulness. His tragic death is remembered with varying public opinion, locally and internationally. Many tributes continue to be paid to him, and directors have devoted films to him from various angles. However, we find that in Burkina Faso, very few audiovisual productions relate to governance under the Sankara era. Guided by an ideal of balance, Thomas Sankara, the Human, features interviews with surviving witnesses of the era, allowing them to reveal what they have in the depths of their conscience without censorship, and restoring to history what belongs to history.

Richard Tiéné

Boubié Richard Tiéné is a Burkinabè journalist and author of several documentaries, major reports, audiovisual investigations who cut his teeth in television and radio. He holds an international Master's degree in media management from the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Lille in France, and a Master's degree in information and communication sciences and techniques from the University of Ouagadougou. Passionate about media, he is also editor of the web newspaper "Radars Info Burkina" (radarsburkina.net), correspondent for DW (Deutsche Welle), and managing director of the communication agency G.COM. In 2009, his short film, co-directed with Romain André, Prince 2 la nuit, was included in the panorama category of FESPACO. Music, Humor, Political Commitment: The Weight of Words is a documentary that he directed and which was screened at the Ciné Droit Libre Festival in 2016. To date, Boubié Richard Tiéné is the director of more of a dozen films broadcast on the small screen. Learn More