This triggered his desire to create films of his own, and he obtained a scholarship at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography,[6] the Moscow school of Cinema and Television.

Two years later, he produced his first medium-length film, Cinq jours d’une vie (Five Days in a Life), which tells the story of a young man who drops out of a Qur'anic school and becomes a petty thief living on the street.

Den muso was banned by the Malian Minister of Culture, and Cissé was arrested and jailed for the dubious charge of accepting French funding.

The loss caused significant public distress in Mali, prompting calls for collective efforts to recover the trophy and reaffirm the nation's cultural pride.

Shortly before his death, he was scheduled to chair the "fiction feature film" jury at the 29th edition of Fespaco, on 22 February, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

His films have been known for their uncompromising depictions of military violence, abuse of money and power, trade unionism, and the enduring stranglehold of patriarchal traditions over Bamako's women and youth.