Overview
Director:Idrissa Ouedraogo
Writer:Idrissa Ouedraogo
Release Date:6 October 1989 (USA)
Genre:Drama/Family
Plot Summary:The film is set in a small African village. Bila (Noufou Ouédraogo) is a ten year old boy who makes friends with an old woman called Sana (Fatimata Sanga), who is an outcast. Everybody calls her a witch but Bila calls her "Yaaba" instead, meaning "grandmother". Sana's medicine saves Bila's cousin, Nopoko (Roukietou Barry), when she gets ill.
After watching this film with its jumpy and slow narrative draws and anti-climax ending, it was obvious to me about the large differences between African and Western movies. As it is subtitled we are able to understand in short what the characters are saying but I could not help but think I was not getting the full dialogue with being able to speak their native language, 'Moore'.
At first the narrative loosely follows Bila and his cousin Nopoko as they play near their village but slowly more characters are introduced such as Kougri and the sub-plot of her being unfaithful to her drunkard husband (which isn't, unlike most Western sub-plots, less important than the main plot). We are then introduced to the main title plot of Sana, whom the villagers call witch but Bila takes a liking to, naming her 'Yaaba' which means 'grandmother' in Moore. When Bila's cousin Nopoko falls ill with tenenus due to a conflict between the village children involving a knife, Sana claims she knows how to heal her. A 'con-artist' tells her uncle that the 'witch' of the village has stolen Nopoko's soul and must be forced from the village. Bila and the town drunk, Kougri's husband, try to tell the villagers otherwise but Sara is still pushed away.
When Bila brings Sana's friend, an old great healer, to the village, he too is pushed away. Eventually Bila's mother talks to him secretly, telling him to fetch Sara and the medicine. In a short time, Nopoko is better and Sana's banishment is forgotton. Kougri is caught with her lover who is chased from the village with Kougri shouting to her husband after him, "I will never be forced to live with you again". Shortly after this, Bila's mother sends him to take food to Sana only to find she has passed away. Later, we see Bila, Nopoko and her father at the lake telling stories of Sana's mother and father. As a gift, Bila gives Nopoko the keepsake Sana had given him. Nopoko says she'll give it back if Bila can catch her.
The film ends with a long shot that is no less than a beautiful representation of Africa with the two playing children running to the horizen.
If this film was to be made in Hollywood, there would have been many differences despite the obvious Western influence already. Since the film was funded partly by Western finances, non-African directors had some say in the making of the film, which is obvious from the soundtrack. At first, it seems all natural, all sounds from diegetic sources for example, the rumble of village action and the sounds of birds and insects. But soon a soundtrack is introduced but it is very subtle.
I will soon show this film to a group of people from different ages to get feedback on African films.
