Idrissa Ouédraogo was born in Banfora, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), in 1954. He grew up in the town of Ouahigouya in the northern region of his homeland, and in 1976 he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree. To ensure a better life his farmer parents sent him to Ouagadougou for further education, where he attended the African Institute for Cinema Studies (Institut Africain d’Etudes Cinématographiques) completing his studies in 1981 with a masters. After studying in Kiev in the USSR he moved t ...