A group of young women tweak machines and hammer away at a school for auto mechanics in Ouagadougou in this poetic story about life choices, sisterhood and the endeavour to find your own way. In a country with youth unemployment at 52 percent, jobs are a hot issue. The young girls at a mechanics school in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou are right in the middle of a crucial point in life when their dreams, hopes and courage are confronted with opinions, fears and society’s expectations of what a woman should be. Using interesting narrative solutions, Theresa Traore Dahlberg depicts their last school years and at the same time succeeds in showing the country’s violent past and present. This is a feature-film debut and coming-of-age film with much warmth, laughs, heartbreak and depth.
In this hybrid documentary, we glimpse the lives of young women training to become mechanics in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Amidst the quirks of their training, they find solace in their sisterhood. Ouaga Girls proves itself a contemplative film that examines the determination needed to break into a male dominated profession. The rigour demonstrated by the girls establishes this film as an important watch.
Kika Memeh & Ogheneofegor Obuwoma, FOCUS Curators
Presented by
Bintou Konate, Chantale Nissougou, Mouniratou Sedogo, Catherine Nea, Dina Tapsoba, Marthe Ouedraogo
Sweden/Burkina Faso/
France/Qatar
2017
In French with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
David Herdies
Cinematography
Iga Mikler, Sophie Winquist
Editor
Alexandra Strauss, Margareta Lagerqvist
Original Music
Christoffer Roth, Seydou Richard Traore, Jenny Wilson
Theresa Traore Dahlberg
Theresa Traore Dahlberg (born 1983 in Värnamo, Sweden) resides and works in Stockholm. She studied film at the New School in New York and the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 2017, she graduated with a Master of Fine Art from The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Her film, The Ambassador’s Wife (2018), won the Tempo Short Film Award and screened internationally at festivals such as TIFF, Berlin Critics’ Week, Clermont-Ferrand, and Telluride. Her first film, Taxi Sisters (2011), and her first feature-length documentary, Ouaga Girls (2017), continue to be widely shown around the world.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Montreal, ma belle
In this Valentine to discovering love later in life, the ever-elegant Joan Chen plays Feng Xia, a 53-year-old Chinese immigrant and mother in Montreal whose world is turned upside down when she meets and falls in love with a young Quebecoise.
Sirât
A desperate father (Sergi Lopez) searchers for his missing daughter through the spiritual wasteland of the Moroccan desert. An unforgettable sensory powerhouse, Sîrat will have you riveted and rattled for hours after the end credits have rolled.
L'Atalante
Jean Vigo died from TB in 1934 at the age of 29. Yet he is revered as one of the great innovators of the medium, and his only feature, L'Atalante, is a seminal film, a tender, lyrical love story set on a barge on the Seine.
Spring After Spring
Three daughters strive to live up to the standards set by their mother Marie Mimi Ho, and keep Vancouver Chinatown's Spring Parade going through thick and thin, in this enormously affectionate local documentary by Jon Chiang.
The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes
A beautiful portrait of E.J. Hughes, who quietly helped reshape the artistic landscape of British Columbia in the 20th century. This extraordinary documentary explores Hughes’s legacy not only as an artist, but as a devoted, humble human being.
The Love That Remains
Anna and Magnús have separated, leaving her to raise their three children as he spends long stretches at sea, working as a fisherman. As the seasons pass, their emotions ebb and flow. A richly conceived story with unexpected delight and humour.