He won multiple awards during his 50-year career, including the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and spent his life championing African cinema.

Celebrated Malian director Souleymane Cissé, who was the first sub-Saharan African director to win a major award at Cannes with 1987 Jury Prize winner Yeelen (Brightness), died Wednesday at the age of 84.

Malian director Souleymane Cissé, the African cinema pioneer who over five decades gained prominence for works infused with deep humanism and political engagement, died on Wednesday. He was 84. News of Cissé’s death was announced by his daughter,

The incendiary films of the late pioneer of African cinema do not merely critique power but discern the social and political forces at work beneath the surface of the everyday

Malian director Souleymane Cissé, one of the fathers of African cinema, died on Wednesday in a Bamako clinic aged 84, his daughter told AFP.

Trailblazer of African cinema was the winner of the jury’s prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival for his film, Yeelen.

Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cissé, a pioneer of African cinema with a career spanning 50 years, has died at age 84.

The Malian director Souleymane Cissé, one of the fathers of African cinema, died on Wednesday in a Bamako clinic aged 84, his daughter has told AFP.