Mali’s highly acclaimed director Souleymane Cisse, who is considered one of the pillars of African cinema, has died at age 84.
His daughter announced that Cisse died on Wednesday, leaving a trailblazing legacy on the silver screen spanning half a century that was marked by a commitment to African storytelling, deep humanism and profound political engagement.
“Papa died today in Bamako. We are all in shock. He dedicated all his life to his country, to cinema and to art,” Mariam Cisse said.
Cisse won the jury’s prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival for “Yeelen” (“Brightness”), which draws on legends from west Africa’s Bambara people.
In 2023, Cannes honoured him again with the Carrosse d’Or, an award given to directors who have “marked the history of cinema with their boldness, their exacting standards and their intransigence in staging”.
That award was stolen from his home in 2024, before being found again.
❤️ Remembering Souleymane Cissé (1940-2025), one of cinema's greats known for catapulting African film to the world stage with his feature YEELEN, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 1987 and became the first African movie to be awarded at the festival. pic.twitter.com/jYPzT0vdN3
— Film at Lincoln Center (@FilmLinc) February 19, 2025
Fellow Malian director Boubacar Sidibe said in a message on Facebook that the Sahel country’s film industry was in “mourning”, while Minister of Culture Mamou Daffe lamented the loss “of this monument of African cinema”.
The Film at Lincoln Center non-profit also praised Cisse as “one of cinema’s greats”, citing his work, Yeelen, for “catapulting African film to the world stage”.
‘If God wills it’
Cisse is one of two only filmmakers to have twice won the grand prize at Burkina Faso’s Panafrican Film and Television Festival (FESPACO), among the largest and most prestigious in Africa.
He was due to board a plane on Thursday to Burkina Faso capital’s Ouagadougou to head the 29th edition of the festival’s features jury from February 22.
Souleymane Cissé (April 21, 1940 to February 19, 2025). At 84 years old, and as one of the last living pioneers of African cinema, his presence was an invaluable link to the continent's cultural history.
To truly honor Cissé's legacy is to understand his body of work as an… pic.twitter.com/4XXyuQATMA
— Akoroko — African Cinema Now! (@akorokoafrica) February 19, 2025
In his 2023 Cannes interview with the AFP news agency, he criticised the “censorship” and “contempt” that he said prevented African films being distributed around the world.
Even on the day of his death, he urged the military leaders in Mali – which declared 2025 a year of culture – to help the country’s industry catch up with its continental rivals.
“It is not enough to make cinema; the works must also be visible. May the authorities help us with the construction of cinemas,” he told a news conference on Wednesday morning. “This is the appeal I make to them before my death, if God wills it.”
