They Didn't Have a Choice

Jihadist violence has been on the rise in Burkina Faso since 2012, and it has had devastating effects (relocation, poverty, famine, decline of tourism) that director Seidou Samba Touré candidly explores by filming Burkinabe villagers with his camera.

During the civil war in Ivory Coast, as in other countries at war, the unmistakable importance of the media in the dissemination of information and for public opinion is obvious. This journalistic portrait of Télévision Notre Patrie, the rebels' TV station in the northern part of the country, is a thorough presentation of the history of this channel. Interviews with army commanders, correspondents, presenters and citizens underline the power the media have and make clear that the war is just as much a battle of communication as it is an armed conflict. At the same time, Télé Guerre shows how four years of civil war have depleted the country and which role the international community plays in the realisation of a fragile peace. Little is certain, and this also applies to the journalists who work on the rebels' side during the war and who sometimes cross the thin boundary between conveying information and propaganda.