FESPACO: Malian film 'Wulu' premieres

Film screenings are continuing at the FESPACO film festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. And as the festival marks it’s 8th day, Malian film Wulu has taken the spotlight in the event, alongside other films such as “Félicité” and “The African storm.”

Wulu recounts the rise of a West African drug lord, while still portraying the evils in Mali: violence, jihadist groups, corruption, among others.

Daouda Coulibaly, the movie’s director says: “It is a film about a part of the African youth who did not have access to education and who have difficulties finding jobs. And when they finally find jobs, they are poorly paying jibs and therefore difficult to sustain. So they are likely to be tempted into drug trafficking.”

Directed by a Franco-Malian artist Daouda Coulibaly, this big thriller-type production is one of the best films at the festival, according to the director whose country is prone to jihadist attacks.

“The crisis is multidimensional, we must fight these people on the ground. We must try to push them back. But they are not cut off from their means of financing, there is a good chance that their groups will be reformed elsewhere as we are seeing,” Daouda adds.

The filming, originally planned in Mali, had to be relocated to Senegal for security reasons after the Bamako attack, which killed 20 people in November 2015.