Their lives are right up there on the screen

On a continent where most cinemas serve up a regular diet of Hollywood blockbusters and action flicks, movie fans at Africa’s premier film festival have been enjoying a rare glimpse of their own reality on screen.

Crowds have lined up under a searing sun at the Fespaco festival in Burkina Faso this week to watch movies made by the continent’s top directors -- and to enjoy the stories of people like themselves.

“The public is demanding and is streets ahead of the filmmakers themselves,” said Idrissa Ouedraogo, the Burkinabe director whose films have won awards at Cannes and Berlin. “They want to see their own images; they want to see things they identify with, their own heroes.”

The Pan-African Cinema and Television Festival, or Fespaco, brings hundreds of directors, producers and movie fans to the sprawling capital of this poor, landlocked West African state.

Wealthier visitors stay at the Hotel Independence and watch films in the city’s two air-conditioned theaters. For locals, the $2 entry fee for cool and comfortable seats is prohibitive. So they flock to open-air cinemas where they can get in for less than 50 cents. They sit on concrete benches under starry skies, laughing and commenting on the action.

One reason for the popularity of the Burkinabe films might be their use of the local Moore language -- an important element in a country where most people cannot read.

Fanta Regina Nacro’s “La Nuit de la Verite” (The Night of Truth), a dark tale about genocide, is scripted partly in Moore. “My aim for Fespaco is the top prize, but a popular triumph would also satisfy me,” she said. “It’s so important for me that the public support my story.”

For 20-year-old Daniel Dianou, the festival is literally giving him a chance to see his image on screen. He got a bit part in “Ouaga Saga” in a scene where people watch a John Wayne western in a Ouagadougou open-air cinema. “I always watch lots of films in that cinema,” he said. “One day, I want to be a great actor like Danny Glover.”