Sira, a poetic metaphor for Sahelian resilience in the face of terrorism

Abstract

The film Sira (2023) tells the story of Sira, a young girl who helplessly witnesses the massacre of all the men in her family by terrorists as they crossed the desert to celebrate her wedding. Raped and abandoned alone in the desert, Sira finds not only the inner strength necessary for her survival, but also the courage and rage to fight her tormentors and finally free her community. We witness a form of resilience with a feminine face, a resilience born from the cruelty of men without law or faith, then actualized in a hellish environment. Starting from this film, this article examines the poetics of the figure of resilience and the issues related to its modeling in African cinematographic creation in general. To do this, it is based on an approach that borrows its theoretical tools from topological semiotics and the semiotics of cultures in order to identify, on the one hand, the strength of resilience of the subject subjected to unprecedented violence, and on the other hand, the challenges of the cinematization of this resilience, namely the cathartic and social functions of cinema as an actor in the fight against the terrorist hydra. Overall, this reflection raises the question of the commitment of art in Africa and the professional conscience of African directors called upon to bear witness to the realities of their time, daring to tackle all subjects, including the most sensitive. This is how they will make cinema a lever for the social and economic development of the continent.