France, Burkina Faso, and Mali / 1987 / 106mins / Drama / Bambara

Set in a timeless past, Yeelen recounts the mythic tale of a power struggle between father and son. Soma Diarra, the jealous father and member of a feared Bambara secret society, plots to kill his son and rival, Nianankoro. Highly stylized and deliberately paced, Yeelen forces the viewer to navigate fundamental oppositions: change and tradition, life and death, light and darkness. Inspired by the classic oral literature of the Mande, Cissè traces the circle of time and shows us that the origin and the end are one and the same. Film Comment called Yeelen "not only the most beautifully photographed African film ever, but also the best African film ever made." Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival in 1987.

Souleymane Cissé

Souleymane Cissé is one of Africa's most admired and respected filmmakers. Born in Bamako, Mali in 1940, Cissé went to high school in Dakar, Senegal. He began his film career as a film projectionist and was moved to begin creating his own films during a screening of a documentary film about Patrice Lumumba's arrest. He obtained a scholarship to the VGIK in Moscow. He then returned to Mali and joined the Ministry of Information as a cameraman, where he produced documentaries and short films. In 1975 he shot Den Muso (The Young Girl), the first full length Malian feature in the Bambara language. It was immediately banned by the government, and Cissé was arrested and jailed for having accepted French funding. His next feature, Baara (Work), was produced in 1977 and won the Etalon de Yennega at FESPACO in 1978, and Finye (The Wind) produced in 1982, won the Tanit d’Or at Carthage Film Festival in 1982 and the Etalon de Yennega in 1983. His 1993 masterpiece, Yeelen (Brightness) won the Prix du Jury in Cannes in 1987. His film Waati (Time) competed for the Cannes Palme d'Or in 1995. Cissé is Founding President of the Union of West African Cinema and Audiovisual Designers and Entrepreneurs and devotes his energy to developing an economically viable African audiovisual industry. He is also on the board of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation, dedicated to preserving and restoring classic films from around the world. Learn More