Moussa Sène Absa

Dakar, Senegal

Moussa Sène Absa was born in 1958 in Senegal. After starting a career as an actor, he has won awards for his short films, documentaries, and features. He is also a painter and author. He exemplifies the “homo senegalensis”, an ideal of an artist, which was dear to Léopold Sédar Senghor, rooted in tradition but fully willing to use what the Western world has to offer. Ironically, Absa is more famous internationally than he is in his own country despite exposure to a large audience in Senegal through the TV series Goorgoorlu, written by TT Fons and produced by the national Senegalese television (RTS). His first film Le Prix du mensonge (The Price of Lies) earned him the Tanit d'Argent (Silver Tanit) at the Journées cinématographiques de Carthage (Carthage Film Festival) in 1988. Tableau Ferraille, released in 1996, earned him several awards including Best Cinematography at FESPACO in 1997. (Source: Through African Eyes - Dialogues with the Directors, BONETTI Mahen and REDDY Prerana (Editors), 2003, African Film Festival, Inc. and Printinfo JV LLC, Yerevan, Armenia, p.84)