Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) – The Mauritanian Government has, in a statement Sunday, commended the success of Mauritanian film-maker Abderahmane Sissako who, it said, “honours his country, Africa and the Arab world after winning Friday seven awards at the 40th ceremony of the Cesars of Cinema in Paris, France for his film “Timbuktu”.
This is the first time that an African film-maker obtains a French award.
Sissako is also very much attached to Mali, a country where he led part of his life.
According to Mauritanian Culture and Handicraft Ministry, “the filmmaker has demonstrated his capacities and the creative knowledge of his people.”
All actors and technicians who worked on the film, the population of Oualata in eastern Mauritania where the film was shot, and the whole population of Mauritania were congratulated by the ministry “for this great achievement that proves the exceptional genius and the new trajectory of our compatriot, the pertinence of his analysis, his deep sense of tolerance and reconciliation among the populations, the cultures and the nations.”
The ministry also congratulated Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and the government for their support in the making of the film that relates the life of the population of the Malian town of Timbuktu under the occupation of Islamist terrorist groups between 2012 and 2013.
