Forest Whitaker wins the Oscar for best actor

Forest Whittaker has won the Oscar for best actor for playing the former Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin. But the film, 'The Last King of Scotland', and others with an African theme are not considered representative of African cinema by many at Fespaco, the African Film Festival. James Copnall reports from Ouagadougou, Burkino Faso's capital:

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Mahmoud Ali Balugan:

Hollywood is not being fair to Africa. Most of the films they've taken out of Africa have been negative films, films portraying Africa in a bad light. There are so many positive things about Africa that Hollywood could have latched onto and even attempts when they've taken African stories that are positive, they still manage to inject some negative things about Africa.

'The Last King of Scotland' will be shown at Fespaco but it has no chance of winning the main prize. The Nnengo stallion, as the award for the best feature film is known, is open only to African films. Hundreds of movies will be shown during Fespaco, the majority made by African directors. The festival is vital for the continent's film makers since their work is often not widely shown around the world. One of the major themes of this year's festival is Africa's tortured relationship with the west, with several films making a strong case that Africa continues to be exploited.

James Copnall, BBC News, Burkino Faso

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portrayal of
representation of, acting as

hailed
publicly praised as important and successful

groaning
making a noise which shows disapproval of, disappointment in or disagreement with something

script
a written version of what happens and what is said by the actors in a film or play, for example

dictators
leaders who always try to keep complete control and power over the countries that they rule

in a bad light
in a negative way

latched onto
shown an interest in, used as a topic for a film

major themes
main subjects, important topics

tortured
very difficult, painful, damaging, punishing

exploited
used unfairly, here, giving very little to Africa in return