La mangue by Idrissa Ouedraogo

La Mangue a short film by Idrissa Ouedraogo born in Burkina Faso (former Upper Volta) in 1954 and died in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 2018. One of the most important African directors, he studied cinema in his native country, as well as in Paris and Kiev. The Burkinabe Director was also Commander of the National Order of Burkina Faso and Knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters. The short film of 4’09 is about Koro, a 6-year-old girl, who picks up a mango stone, holds it in her hands, and later digs it into the ground in a public square, ignoring her friends who are laughing at her. She waters the growing plant and tries to protect it, while people continuously step on it. Day after day, the girl takes care of the plant which is, just like her, growing and growing. When Koro – now a woman – falls in love and gives birth to her own child, ripe mangoes are falling from the tree. The film ends with Koro’s young daughter who collects the mango stone and plants it in the village ground. A segment of Stories on Human Rights 2009 produced by ART for The World commissioned by the High Commissioner of Human Rights with award-winning filmmakers and artists, using the universal language of art to sensitize people across the planet to what “human rights” actually means.