Edition 2018, Edition 2019

Ouaga Girls

A group of young women tweak machines and hammer away at a school for auto mechanics in Ouagadougou in this poetic story about life choices, sisterhood and the endeavor to find your own way.

In a country with youth unemployment at 52 percent, jobs are a hot issue. The young girls at a mechanics school in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou are right in the middle of a crucial point in life when their dreams, hopes and courage are confronted with opinions, fears and society’s expectations of what a woman should be. Using interesting narrative solutions, Theresa Traore Dahlberg depicts their last school years and at the same time succeeds at showing the country’s violent past and present. Thisis a feature-film debut and coming-of-age film with much warm, laughs, heartbreak and depth.

Theme:

Theresa Traore Dahlberg

Director Theresa Traore Dahlberg was born in 1983. She grew up on the Swedish island of Öland and in Burkina Faso, and is now based in Stockholm. After a few years in New York—where she assisted directors, photographers, and production managers—she studied film production, first at the New School in New York and then at the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her graduation film, Taxi Sister, which follows the female taxi driver Boury in Dakar, Senegal, has received praise and been screened at festivals worldwide. During the last couple of years, Theresa has produced a television series for SVT and been involved in different film and art projects internationally (New York, Haiti and Burkina Faso) constantly stretching the boundaries of art, film and documentary. She is now doing her masters in fine art at The Royal Institute of Art in Sweden. Ouaga Girls is her feature length debut.

theresa-dali

Technical details

Year:

2017

Credits

Direction
Theresa Traore Dahlberg
Sound
Christian Holm, Anders Kwarnmark
Distribution
DocsBarcelona Distribution
Production
David Herdies (Momento Film)
Co-production
Estelle Robin You, Saïdou Richard Traore
Photo
Iga Mikler, Sophie Winquist
Edition
Alexandra Strauss, Margareta Lagerqvist
Postproduction
Niclas Merits
Color
Hector Mora
Music
Christoffer Roth, Seydou Richard Traore, Jenny Wilson
Starring
Bintou Konate, Chantale Nissougou, Mouniratou Sedogo, Catherine Nea, Dina Tapsoba, Marthe Ouedraogo, Rose Kientega, Adissa Balboné, Nathalie Yanogho

Screening times

Awards