Swiss co-produced African masterpiece ‘Tilaï’ revived in Cannes

Set in Burkina Faso before the French colonisation, 'Tilaï' chronicles the plight of Saga (Rasmane Ouedraogo), who returns to his family's village and discovers that the woman he was in love with has married his father. Waka Films

A major figure in Burkinabe cinema, Idrissa Ouedraogo is back in the spotlight at Cannes Classics 2026 with the newly restored 4K version of Tilaï, the film that won the Grand Prix in 1990.

One of the most beloved and prestigious sections of the Cannes Film Festival, this year’s Cannes Classics kicked off with a screening of Idrissa Ouedraogo’s Grand Prix winner Tilaï. Presented in a newly restored 4K version, the screening of the 1990 Grand Prix winner, also welcomed Ouedraogo’s daughter, Nora Ouedraogo, and producer Silvia Voser, who represents Switzerland-based Waka Films.

The film at the time was a rare example of a successful tripartite co-production including Burkina Faso, Switzerland and France. It also reflected a moment in Swiss cinema marked by openness to more ambitious and risky international collaborations.

Created in 2004 at the initiative of festival director Thierry Frémaux, Cannes Classics showcases newly restored films that occupy a crucial place in cinematic heritage while also promoting works that have become difficult to access or fallen out of public view.

Idrissa Ouedraogo (right) in action with his director of photography Jean Monsigny during the shooting of ‘Tilaï’. Waka Films

Although his works were awarded at major international film festivals such as Cannes and Berlin, the cinema of the Burkinabe filmmaker seemed to have fallen into the second category until recently. However, the restoration of two of his masterpieces – first Samba Traoré (1992) in 2024, through the efforts of the Locarno Film Festival and its partner Cinegrell, and this year Tilaï, led by the African Cinemathèque of the French Institute with the support of Waka Films, the Cinemathèque Suisse, and Films de la Plaine – attests to a growing interest in rediscovering his cinematic vision.

“He was an unparalleled artist. I’m extremely honored, but at the same time sad that he is not here to see his cinema bearing its fruits,” Nora Ouedraogo tells Swissinfo, visibly moved following the thunderous applause that bookended the screening at the Salle Buñuel of the Palais des Festivals.

Ouedraogo passed away in 2018.

An adventurous moment in Swiss film

With three of his masterpieces, including Tilaï, made as Swiss co-productions, Ouedraogo’s cinema reflects a period when Swiss producers and distributors embraced bolder and riskier ventures. Financing the second feature of a little-known 35-year-old filmmaker from Burkina Faso was one such gamble, and one that would be difficult to imagine within today’s more rigid co-production framework.

Ouedraogo’s producer, Silvia Voser, who also worked with renowned filmmakers such as Marco Bellocchio, Djibril Diop Mambéty, and Abbas Kiarostami, remembers quite fondly the adventurous spirit within the Swiss film industry.

“It was a whole different world”, she says. “We could really embark on adventures. Not that we became extremely rich out of them, but it was a time when we could accomplish things simply because we wanted to. […] Everyone was curious about everything, which allowed institutions to trust and invest in filmmakers who worked on a relatively modest scale.”

Producer Silvia Voser with Idrissa Ouedraogo during the making of ‘Tilaï’, 1989. Waka Films

Voser, who now mainly focuses on the restoration of films in Waka Films’ catalogue, credits Ouedraogo with encouraging her to become a producer. She met Ouedraogo by chance in Cannes, while she was working as a press agent for the Locarno Film Festival and attending the festival to help the new direction of the Centre Suisse du Cinéma to meet industry professionals.

It was when his film Yaaba (1989) premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight that the filmmaker convinced Voser to become the producer for his next film.

“First, I said that it was absolutely impossible; I didn’t know anything about producing. He just laughed at me and said, ‘I know how you think, but I also know that you’re capable of doing it,’” says Voser.

Praising Ouedraogo’s intuitions regarding the film industry at the time she came on board Tilaï as a producer, Voser recalls: “After Yaaba, Idrissa was fully convinced that he wanted to be in the Official Competition the following year. He felt that if he missed that chance, it would be too late. He knew that trends would change rapidly, and as filmmakers from Africa were gaining international attention, he did not want to miss that opportunity.” And the acclaim that Tilaï received at the 43rd Cannes Film Festival indeed proved him right.

On the red carpet at Cannes, 1990: Ouedraogo accompanied by his wife, Sanata (in white, left), Burkina Fasso’s then Culture minister Béatrice Damiba, and the country’s First Lady, Chantal Compaoré. Waka Films

A cinema of tradition and defiance

Tilaï, translated into English as The Law, centers on Saga, a man who returns to his village after years of absence, only to learn that his fiancée, Nogma, is now married to his own father.

Several characters in the film refuse to accept what fate has reserved for them. Saga and Nogma choose to stay together against their families’ wishes, Saga’s brother Kougri chooses to help the couple escape rather than kill Saga in accordance with village custom. And ultimately, all of them face the consequences of their choices.

In Tilaï, Ouedraogo expands the theme of defiance in the face of authority that he explored through a child’s eyes in Yaaba. No matter how arbitrary it may appear amid the shifting winds of modernity, tradition emerges as the social and cultural manifestation of law. Samba Traoré, the filmmaker’s follow-up to Tilaï, likewise sees its titular character transgressing the law by robbing a bank in order to gain the respect of the villagers and start a new family.

Saga’s (in a scene of ‘Tilaï’, front) plight is no Greek tragedy, as some Western critics said at the time. “It is simply a human tragedy. It is universal and eternal,” responded the director. Waka Films

Embodying the archetypal figure of the fugitive, Samba and his moral quandary arguably resonated more readily with Western audiences, whereas Saga’s plight remained for many of them as a distant, impenetrable parable. Confronted with such a simple yet powerful story in its dramatic construction, viewers often resorted to the term “Greek tragedy” to describe its austere pathos.

Meanwhile, Voser sees universality as the driving force behind Ouedraogo’s cinema and the main reason his films have stood the test of time. Quoting the filmmaker himself, Voser recalls: “Idrissa would genuinely wonder and ask, ‘Why do they keep calling it a Greek tragedy? We, too, have our tragedies! It is simply a human tragedy. It is universal and eternal.’”

From local images to global interpretations

Directing: Idrissa Ouedraogo shooting ‘Tilaï’. Waka Films

As an internationally celebrated auteur, Ouedraogo’s early films arguably embodied the tensions that arose from his prominence on the European festival circuit while working with highly local subject matter.

Academics, though, often adopted a reductive approach, classifying works from this period as “village films” and claiming that their success with foreign audiences stemmed from an exoticising gaze.
Similarly, some of his compatriots, as well as filmmakers from other African countries, reproached him for depicting primarily rural ways of life, which differed considerably from the modern urban images they aspired to present to Western audiences.

Silvia Voser (center) and Nora Ouedraogo, Idrissa’s daughter, present the restored copy of ‘Tilaï’ at a special screening in Cannes, on May 13, 2026. Personal Archive

However, while also stressing the universal appeal of her father’s films, Nora Ouedraogo offers a more contemporary reading of Tilaï:

“I find even a small touch of feminism there, since all the misfortunes in the film happen because of the carnal desires of an old man. Its concerns remain rather embryonic, but the film still deals with the problem of patriarchy,” she says.

Ouedraogo’s later films received less international attention than Samba Traoré, even though the filmmaker strove to diversify his creative output, whether through a film set in France such as Le Cri du cœur (1994), or by experimenting with the aesthetics of historical drama in La Colère des dieux (2003). Born in the late nineties, Nora Ouedraogo had the chance to accompany her father during the later years of his life. She also hopes to enter the film industry through the screenplays she has written, and recalls their time together:

“He breathed cinema; he lived for cinema. He was working on a TV series when I was in my final year of high school, and I went to the set with him. He was unrecognisable! He was usually so gentle, but on set he became extremely serious and drove the cast and crew forward with all his energy, as if he had an alter ego.”

A touch of feminism, dealing with patriarchal issues: scene of ‘Tilaï’. Waka Films

Like many of his peers, the seasoned filmmaker also struggled with financial difficulties during this period. According to his daughter, before his death, he was working on a historical film that would have focused on one of the last kings of Burkina Faso, who was exiled by colonial settlers.

“It was his precious baby, but because it was a historical war film, he needed a lot of money to make it,” she says.

Following the restorations of Samba Traoré and now Tilaï, which will be released in France this year, Nora Ouedraogo hopes that other films by her father will receive the recognition and care they rightfully deserve.

Edited by Virginie Mangin & Eduardo Simantob/ds