Burkina Faso and France / 2004 / 100mins / Drama, War / French

Mirroring the political strife and genocide in contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa, this film opens as preparations are being made to end a decade of civil war in a fictitious country. A peace agreement is about to be signed and celebrated in a night of reconciliation with a “laying down of arms.” As the powerful drumming begins, both rebels and government forces gather bringing with them years of rage, grief, hope, suspicion, and bitterness. In this first feature film, Fanta Régina Nacro boldly presents the sometimes unintentional but inhuman behavior inherent in all people.

Fanta Régina Nacro

Fanta Régina Nacro studied at the African Institute for Cinematic Studies (INAFEC), the national school of Burkina Faso, and the Sorbonne in Paris, where she earned a Master's Degree in Film and Audiovisual Studies. She is the first Burkinabé woman to direct a dramatic film, the short, Un Certain Matin (1991), and has made many short films, which address the AIDS epidemic in Africa, including Vivre Positivement (1993). Her short films Puk Nini (1996) and Un certain matin have been hailed as representing the “African New Wave.” Her last short for the Mama Africa series, A Close-Up on Bintou (2002), won more than twenty prizes in international festivals. Nacro is a founding member of the Guilde Africaine des Realisateurs et Producteurs (The African Guild of Directors and Producers). She was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 1999 for her film, Le Truc de Konate (Konate's Gift). Her first feature The Night of Truth (2004) was featured in the touring program of the Global Film Initiative and received screenwriting honors at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Learn More