Now thanks to the IFI's African series in July, an insight into one of World Music's most famous and controversial stars comes to Dublin.

At home in Senegal, the Grammy-award winning artist is an inspiration for generations, and in a special feature film, I Bring What I Love, we see a unique view of the recording, release and controversy surrounding Youssou N’Dour’s 2004 album, Egypt. An ambitious fusion of Senegalese idioms and Egyptian arrangements that sings the praises of Islam, it was rejected in his homeland but embraced in the West. It went on to win Youssou N'Dour his first Grammy, as well as bringing up a host of cultural and political issues. The film won the Impact of Music Award,
Nashville Film Festival, 2009 and the Audience Award, São Paulo International Film Festival, 2009.

The IFI's African series also includes Tilaï, which twenty years ago made a huge breakthrough for African cinema by winning the Grand Prix at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival - the only African film ever to do so. To celebrate this achievement, the IFI presents Tilaï and a series of more recent films from across the continent that have been successful on the international festival circuit.

The series offers fascinating insights into social structures that we rarely get an opportunity to see represented by insiders, from the diversity of post-apartheid Cape Town and the stifling tribal divisions of Kenya to the Tilaï honor code of Burkina Faso as well as an insight into the voice that has caused so much controversy in Africa while penetrating Western culture.

The season runs from July 12, culminating in the screening of Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love on July 15. For ticket information and details of each film see [link]www.ifi.ie[/link]