Timité Bassori is one of the unsung heroes of African film and one of the fathers of Ivorian cinema – a singular voice whose work remains largely unavailable globally. The Woman with the Knife is his best known film – a complex account of a young, unnamed Ivorian intellectual returning home after a lengthy spell in Europe. Failing to reconcile his new-found modernist views with his African traditions, the man becomes haunted by the specter of a knife-brandishing woman threatening to shatter any potential relationships with other women. Providing an incessive commentary on the evolving sexual politics of the era and the wide chasm between the Western form of modernity and self-enveloping African traditionalism, Bassori’s daring coup is one of the pioneering works of black African cinema.

Restored in 2019 by Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata and The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, created by The Film Foundation, FEPACI and UNESCO – in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna – to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema.