“To make a film is easy; to make a good film is war,” Oscar-winning director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu once said. And for filmmakers in a country like Burkina Faso, mired by years of conflict and stability, the challenges are even greater.

But despite the continuing violence, a pan-African film festival in the capital Ouagadougou gathered filmmakers - resilient in the face of conflict - to bring hope through art.

There, we caught up with one of the top Burkinabe filmmakers and explored the art of cinema in Africa; what is on the screen and what is left out. Apolline Traore talks to Al Jazeera.