Burkinabé thespian Issaka Sawadogo is a name that continues to pop up on this site, and one that you really should become familiar with, as I think it’s only a matter of time before Hollywood comes calling. Although, whether he’ll accept is another story altogether.
The actor has signed up to star in award-winning Swedish director Lisa Aschan’s second feature, titled White People.
The film, which is a follow-up to Aschan’s feature directorial debut (She Monkeys), co-stars Pernilla August and Vera Vitali in a film that follows a group of 6 people as they fight to stay alive after being locked away together.
That’s all we know right now of the synopsis. And no word on specific characters that will be played by each actor. Nor do we know why the film is titled White People, and how that informs the narrative.
When I know more, so will you.
The film will be produced by Anna-Maria Kantarius for Garagefilm International.
It will receive funding support in the amount of €0.9 million (about $1.2 million) from the Swedish Film Institute .
Films that Sawadogo stars in that we’ve featured on this blog, since we first learned about him, include The Invader, which he stars in with Italian actress Stefania Rocca, as a pair, who meet, get involved against all expectations, and have an intense but very brief affair, which quickly ends, sending Sawadogo’s character down a spiral of desperation and violence.
The second film we featured was De Nieuwe Wereld (or The New World), the 2012 Dutch film in which Dutch actress Bianca Krijgsman co-starred.
Written and directed by Jaap van Heusden (co-written with Rogier de Blok), the IJswater Films production follows the life of an unruly maid, working in an airport, who is startled by the arrival of a West African refugee seeking asylum.
And the third film – his most recent – is titled Diego Star – a Canada/Belgium co-production, directed by Frédérick Pelletier, a social-realistic drama which sees Sawadogo stars as an engineer from Ivory Coast, who works on a Russian cargo ship, and is held responsible, when the ship gets stranded off the coast of a wintry Canada.
Unfortunately, none of the 3 films is readily available in the USA. Although The Invader can be rented online via Vyer Films (www.vyerfilms.com), a new curation-oriented film streaming service, which acquired U.S. VOD rights to the stylish, moody, and provocative feature film debut last year.
