Rahmatou Keita

Born in Niamey (Niger), Rahmatou Keita is a daughter of the Sahel. She is Fulaani, Songhoy and Mandingo. She studied Philosophy and Linguistics in Paris, France. With her dreams of becoming a writer and a filmmaker in mind, she started to work as a journalist, writing for newspapers and magazines and later moving to radio and television as a commentator, hostess, and reporter. From 1987 to 1993, she worked on international television stations and was the first African journalist (including the diaspora) to appear on French television. She received two coveted "7 d'or" awards for the television magazine's team "L'ASSIETTE ANGLAISE" on the French TV Channel Antenne 2 in 1988 and 1989. In 1993, she wrote SDF, Sans Domiciles Fixe (Lattès 1993), a book about the homeless in France and went on to direct documentary films. AL’LÈÈSSI... AN AFRICAN ACTRESS is her first feature film.

Al’leessi...An African Actress
A film by Rahmatou Keita, 2004, 69 min., Color/BW
Zalika Souley is in her fifties. She lives with four children in a two-bedroom apartment with neither electricity nor water in Niamey, the capital of ...