Photo : Adjoajo, CC BY-SA 4.0
Jean-Pierre Dikongué Pipa
Director of "Muna Moto", the only Cameroonian to win the Stallion of Yennenga
Born in 1940
Related city : Douala
On screen : Muna Moto (1975)
Who are they?
Jean-Pierre Dikongué Pipa is a Cameroonian film director, playwright and writer, born in 1940 in Douala. He came to film through the theatre and trained at the Conservatoire indépendant du cinéma français from 1962 to 1964, before making three short films in 1965 and 1966.
What made them famous
He owes his reputation to "Muna Moto" ("The Child of Another"), the story of a young fisherman too poor to pay the bride price for the woman he loves. The film won the Stallion of Yennenga, FESPACO's highest award, in 1976, and he remains the only Cameroonian filmmaker to have received it. He went on to make "Le Prix de la liberté" (1978), "Histoires drôles, drôles de gens" (1983) and "Badiaga" (1987).
Key facts
- "Muna Moto" also won the Grand Prix at the Festival international du film de l'ensemble francophone in 1975 and the International Catholic Organisation for Cinema prize in Ouagadougou in 1976.
- Restored by the Cineteca di Bologna as part of the World Cinema Project, "Muna Moto" was screened at FESPACO 2019, where a bronze statue of the director was unveiled on the filmmakers' square in Ouagadougou.
- Also a theatre writer and producer, he has staged some thirty plays, in which he also performed.