Blandine Yaméogo

It is an ordinary afternoon for young Mabo Keïta, at home, in Burkina Faso (West Africa). While his parents are taking a nap, he reads a schoolbook on the front porch when a stranger - an elderly man carrying his own hammock - appears for an unexpected visit. It turns out that the old man is a griot, a West African musician/entertainer whose performances include tribal histories and genealogies. The position of a griot is a time-honored one and passed down from father to son for many generations.

A young biracial woman raised in France travels to Burkina Faso in search of the mother she hasn’t seen in many years. Meanwhile, in Paris, an émigré from Burkina Faso who makes her living as a cleaner teaches the Dioula language to a white middle-class office worker, in this affecting story of global displacement.

After a young boy dies of meningitis, Napoko Diarrha (Yaméogo) is accused of eating his soul because of a local sexist tradition. While this happens, her husband feels disgraced that Diarrha resists the idea of marrying off their daughter, so he exactes his revenge by spreading a dangerous rumor that would probably get her killed. Because of this, Diarrha's fate falls into the village elder's hands. When she finds out she will go trial, she decides to flee to the nearest town, Ouagadougou, before that can take place. After successfully leaving her village, Diarrha's age causes her health to decline, while her daughter grows up. Some time later, her daughter decides to travel to Ouagadougou, in search of her missing mother. Once they are reconnected, they attempt to escape from their male-dominated society.

Quelque part en Afrique. Après dix ans d'une guerre civile sanglante, les Nayaks, ethnie du Président, et les Bonandés, rebelles rassemblés autour du Colonel Théo, sont sur le point de célébrer les accords de paix en organisant une fête de la réconciliation. Mais le souvenir encore vivace des atrocités commises de part et d'autre assombrit peu à peu les festivités.