Thierno Faty Sow

Thierno Faty Sow (Thiès, Senegal, 1941 – Dakar, 2009) was a Senegalese filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. Born in 1941 in Thiès, Senegal, Sow studied filmmaking in Paris at the Conservatoire libre du cinéma français (CLCF, fr) and subsequently worked in French and Senegalese television. He directed documentary shorts and three feature films on his own: Guereo, village de Djibril N'Diaye (1970), L'Option / Mon beau pays (1974), and L'Œil (1981). Sow is best known for the historical drama film Camp de Thiaroye about the Thiaroye massacre near Dakar on December 1, 1944, which he cowrote and codirected with Ousmane Sembène. It won the Grand Special Jury Prize at the 45th Venice International Film Festival in 1988.Sow also performed as a movie actor in two feature films, Nuit africaine (1990) by Gérard Guillaume and cowriters Gaston Kaboré and Lapeyssonie, and Guelwaar (1992) by Ousmane Sembène. Sow died from illness in Dakar on December 6, 2009.