lCheik Doukouré's second feature celebrates the powerful dream of becoming an African soccer star, a dream that is pursued by kids in innumerable small villages who play in the dust with bare feet and footballs made of rags. A thoroughly engaging adventure story, Le ballon d'or follows Bandian, a boy-wonder on the soccer field, from his village in the bush through a series of hilarious and not so funny contretemps to superstardom in France. He's assisted on his way by his hometown witch doctor; the young French doctor (Agnés Soral) who gifts him with a real football - the "golden" ball of the film's title, a dwarf (Aboubacar Koita) who offers him a brother's love, soccer star Karim (played by Salif Keita), and a canny businessman with an eye for the main chance.


The Golden Ball / Le ballon d'or (Cheik Doukouré Guinea/France, 1992, 90 minutes)


R/D : Cheik Doukouré - Sc : Cheik Doukouré, Martin Brossolet, David Carayan - Ph/C : Alain Choquart - M/Ed : Michèle Robert-Lauliac - S : Bruno Seznec - Mus : Loy Erhlich, Jean-Marcel Milan - P : Chrysalide Films - 90' - 35mm - F - Coul/Col - Int/Cast : Aboubakar Sidiki Sumah, Agnès Soral, Habib Hammoud, Mariam Kaba, Salif Keita, Lamua Kouyaté

ABOUT THE MOVIE
Doukouré used the life of Salif Keita (Malian footballer, aka Domingo, born in Bamako, in 1946, First Winner of the African Golden Ball - "African Player of the Year" - in 1970) as a starting point for his 1998 work.