Few movies have been made about jihadism in Africa and even fewer have focused on the plight of women at the hands of extremists. But a slew of films showcased in the continent’s biggest movie festival could be a cinematic watershed. “When people talk about terrorism, they don’t talk much about women,” said Apolline Traore, a director from the festival’s host country, Burkina Faso, which has suffered grievously from jihadism. Traore’s feature-length Sira, which won the Silver Stallion of Yennenga award in the FESPACO festival that ended on Saturday, describes a 25-year-old woman who is abducted by jihadists and has to draw on courage and smartness to survive. Traore said she wanted to haul women out of the typical image of victimhood and place them in the “major role... (they play) in the fight against terrorism”. The director said she was inspired by meeting women whose lives had been turned upside-down by jihadists. One example, she said, was a woman who with a bullet lodged in her shoulder had spent five days looking for shelter for herself and her two children. Nafissatou Cisse, a Burkinabe actress who plays the lead role of Sira, said she had drawn on “the rage” of women...
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