The African movies that “deeply inspired” Martin Scorsese
Just so far as he is a monolithic figure in the world of filmmaking, it’s also true that Martin Scorsese is well regarded as a champion of world cinema. Throughout his remarkable career, the Goodfellas and Taxi Driver director has proven his commitment to promoting and raising awareness of the greater and unknown works from across the globe.
After all, Scorsese’s movies themselves are deeply inspired by the films of Italian neorealism, the French New Wave and Asian cinema and his World Cinema Foundation, and he has further shown his desire to bring world film to a wider Western audience, exemplifying his dedication to the very medium of cinema itself by transcending the boundaries of our usual cultures.
With such a deep knowledge of world cinema, Scorsese’s Film Foundation once partnered with the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers, the Cineteca di Bologna and UNESCO to screen restorations of four African movies at the 50th anniversary of the Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou, testament to the director’s vision of global film.
In a statement, Scorsese named the African movies that have deeply inspired and excited him. “Yeelen, Touki Bouki, Trances, La Noire De…, Al Momia, Bamako,” Scorsese note. “I keep going back to these pictures and each time the experience is richer. My appreciation just keeps growing for the talent, the power, and the wisdom of African cinema.”
Yeelen is the 1987 Malian film by Souleymane Cisse, based on a legend told by the Bambara people about a heroic quest of magic and precognition, starring Issiaka Kane and Niamanto Sanogo. Touki Bouki, meanwhile, is the 1973 Senegalese drama directed by Diop Mambety, and Scorsese also shows his love for documentary in the form of 1981’s Trances about the Moroccan avant-pop band Nass El Ghiwane.
There’s more admiration for the cinema of Senegal, too, in Ousmane Sembene’s 1966 directorial debut La noire de, telling of a young Senegalese woman who moves from her country to work for a French couple in Frances, expecting a glamorous lifestyle before realising the harsh realities of being an African immigrant.
The list of Scorsese’s favourite African movies is rounded off by Shadi Abdel Salam’s Al Momia and Adberrahmane Sissako’s Bamako. The films Scorsese had helped to restore, and screen were Med Hondo’s Soleil O, Mohammed Lahkdar-Hamima’s Chronique des annees de braise, Timite Bassori’s La Femme au Cocteau and Jean-Pierre Dikongue-Pipa’s Muna Moto.
African movies that inspired Martin Scorsese:
- Yeelen (Souleymane Cisse, 1987)
- Touki Bouki (Djibril Drop Mambety, 1973)
- Trances (Ahmed El Maanouni, 1981)
- La Noire De… (Ousmane Sembene, 1966)
- Al Momia (Shadi Abdel Salam, 1969)
- Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2006)
