Guest of honor – Aïssa Maïga
© Nathaniel Baruch
Biography
Born in Dakar to a Malian father and a Senegalese-Gambian mother, Aïssa MaÏga arrives in France at the age of four and half. Her interest for cinema manifested itself at a very young age and she dreams of becoming an actress. She takes her first acting classes in junior high with her French teacher Daisie Faye – today’s artistic director of the Jazz and Comedy Festival. She then plays in the musical of her teacher La Nuit la plus longue for three years and makes her debut at the Mogador Theater and the Folies Bergères. She’s fifteen years old.
After three years of acting classes and graduating from high school, Aïssa appears in Le Royaume du passage by Eric Cloué. The feature film Saraka Bô by Denis Amarwhere she stars along Yvan Attal and Richard Bohringer will be the first of a long list.
Accompanied by Hélène Cheruy Ziz, Aïssa Maïga perfects her acting at the Laboratoire de l’acteur and stands out in various films such as Russian Dolls (2004) by Cedric Klapisch, One Stays, the Other Leaves (2004) by Claude Berri, Don’t Worry, I’m Fine or her role in Paris I Love You (2006) alongside Nathalie Portman, Juliette Binoche and Gina Rowlands.
Finally, her role in Bamako by Abderrahmane Sissako earns her a nomination for the Most Promising Actress at the Cesars 2007. Multiplying the great collaborations (Mood Indigo, Michel Gondry (2013); Code Unknown Michael Hankee (2004), auteur films and comedies (Anything for Alice, 2012), TV movies (Toussaint Louverture, 2012), plays (Brooklyn Boy, by Michel Faga; Les Grandes Personnes, by Chistophe Perton; Des Gens biens, by Anne Bourgeois) and international films (Bianco e Nero, 2007). Aïssa Maïga likes to develop her acting versatility through the diversity of her parts.
In 2016, she stars in The African Doctor by Julien Rambaldi, in which she plays Anna, an African mother who tells the story of the immigration of African intellectuals through the history of the rapper Kamini’s family.
She has also shot in South Africa, Comatose by Mickey Dubé. Her first feature film in English. She appears in the Eric Capitaine film Love Is Dead a quirky romantic comedy.
In 2017, she stars in the much anticipated He Even Has Your Eyes with Lucien Jean-Baptiste, in which they play a black couple adopting a white baby, and in « Corniche Kennedy » by Dominique Cabrera, in which she plays the captain of a drug squad, dedicated cop who gets injured.
For personal reasons, Aïssa Maïga will unfortunately not be able to ensure her meeting scheduled on June 17.
