![‘Samba Traoré’ Trailer: Idrissa Ouédraogo’s West African Masterpiece Returns In A New 4K Restoration [Exclusive]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/21155716/Samba-Traore.jpg "‘Samba Traoré’ Trailer: Idrissa Ouédraogo’s West African Masterpiece Returns In A New 4K Restoration [Exclusive]")
Burkinabé filmmaker Idrissa Ouédraogo turned a botched robbery into a morally thorny study of guilt, fear, and the uneasy relationship between prosperity and personal responsibility with “Samba Traoré.” More than three decades later, the Silver Bear-winning drama is returning to theaters in a new 4K restoration, and The Playlist has the exclusive trailer and poster.
The 1992 film follows Samba (Bakary Sangaré), the only surviving accomplice after a gas-station robbery goes wrong. Escaping with a suitcase full of stolen cash, he returns to his rural village in Burkina Faso and attempts to build a new life without revealing where his sudden wealth came from.
Samba buys cattle, opens a bar with his childhood friend Salif (Abdoulaye Komboudri), marries his former love Saratou (Mariam Kaba), and becomes a father figure to her young son. But the stability he has purchased remains precarious as rumors spread, his conscience begins to close in, and the fear of retribution threatens everything he has built.
Ouédraogo made “Samba Traoré” after “Tilaï,” which won the Grand Prix at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. Blending the shape of a crime thriller with the filmmaker’s recurring interest in the tensions between rural and urban life, tradition and modernity, “Samba Traoré” went on to win the Silver Bear at the 1993 Berlin International Film Festival. Luca Guadagnino later included it among his ten greatest films of all time in the 2022 Sight and Sound directors’ poll.
Ouédraogo co-wrote the screenplay with Jacques Arhex and Santiago Amigorena. The cast also includes Irène Tassembédo. Pierre-Laurent Chénieux served as cinematographer, with Joëlle Dufour editing.
Selected for Locarno Heritage Online’s Histoire(s) du Cinéma restoration program, the film was restored from its original 35mm image and sound negatives. The materials were digitized, digitally restored, and newly color-graded by Cinegrell, with the original elements preserved at the Cinémathèque Suisse on behalf of Waka Films.
Film Movement Classics will open the new 4K restoration of “Samba Traoré” at Film at Lincoln Center on August 28. Watch the exclusive trailer and check out the poster below.
Edward Davis is a senior film journalist and longtime contributor to The Playlist. Davis covers the full breadth of cinema — from major studio releases to independent and international film.
