Late firebrand leader Sankara strikes chords at Burkina film fest

Late firebrand leader Sankara strikes chords at Burkina film fest

Even in death, the former revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara, helped inspire the uprising that ousted his successor last year, and he came to the fore again at the country's annual film festival. The audience at the 24th pan-African FESPACO in Ouagadougou, which wrapped up at the weekend, was moved to rowdy appreciation at the screening of "Captaine Thomas Sankara", a flattering 90-minute portrait of the iconoclastic Marxist soldier by Swiss director Christophe Cupelin. Dubbed Africa's "Che Guevara" by admirers, the new head of state, at age 33, soon changed the name of the deeply poor west African country to Burkina Faso, meaning "the land of upright men", where he also campaigned strongly for women's rights. Sankara's reputation spread far beyond Burkina's landlocked borders because of his determined anti-imperialist outlook and a raft of measures to end dependency on foreign aid.