Or de vie

A Golden Life

Forum 2023

Or de vie is a documentary filmed at a gold mine in southern Burkina Faso. Teenage boy Rasmané and his peers work daily from morning until night in the mines. Without safety clothing and under the most precarious of conditions, they work 100 metres underground to the point of exhaustion, armed with nothing but pickaxes to get to the much-longed-for gold. The fact that they are minors is of no concern. They are simply left to their own devices, relying entirely on themselves to extract the gold if they want to get paid for their labour. We get a detailed impression of how the mines work, how they operate on a day-to-day basis and the constant risks involved. The camera never feels voyeuristic; it mostly stays with Rasmané and tries to capture his emotions as he goes about his business and communicates to the various supervisors on site. In his rare moments of leisure, we see him and his colleagues cook, eat together and engage in conversations about themselves, their aspirations, their experiences of growing up and their families. The director creates an incredible rapport with those around him; towards the end of the film, we find out why.

Trailer/Film Excerpt

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by Boubacar Sangaré (Director, Screenplay) Burkina Faso / Benin / France 2023 French, Mooré, Gan 85' Colour World premiere | Documentary Form

Crew

Director	Boubacar Sangaré
Screenplay	Boubacar Sangaré
Cinematography	Isso Emmanuel Bationo
Editing	Gladys Joujou
Sound Design	Rémi Durel
Sound	Seydou Porgo
Assistant Director	Thomas Henoc Ouedraogo
Producers	Fernand Ernest Kaboré, Faissol Gnonlonfin, Madeline Robert

Produced by

Imedia

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Merveilles Productions

Cotonou, Benin

Les Films de la caravane

Lussas, France

Photos

Boubacar Sangaré

Born in San, Mali in 1985, he earned degrees in both law and film and now works as a lawyer and filmmaker. Following four short films and a television production which he co-directed, Or de vie marks his feature-length debut.

Filmography

2012 Au nom de l’amour; 13 min. 2013 Kanko L’ixelloise; 13 min. · Dieu veille sur les vigiles; 30 min. 2015 Diendé, l’aventurier solitaire; 13 min. · Une révolution africaine, les dix jours qui ont fait chuter Blaise Compaoré (An African Revolution, The Ten Days That Led to Blaise Compaoré’s Fall); co-directed by Gidéon Vink, 88 min. 2023 Or de vie (A Golden Life); 85 min.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023