drama
Written and directed by S. Pierre Yameogo
Children mysteriously die in an African village, and the elders suspect witchcraft. But the ancient traditions they use to find the witch appear to have more to do with local politics than detective work or even magic. And so Napoko, the wife of an elder and the mother of a girl forcibly married to a stranger from another tribe, is cast out from respectable society. Her daughter, Pougbila, responds to the news by leaving her husband’s village to rescue her mother and prove her innocence.
A large part of Delwende‘s charm, at 
least for westerners, is it’s view of village life in today’s Burkina Faso. People wear modern clothes–although they seem to prefer African-style prints. When they can get the batteries, they listen to the radio. But they live in grass huts, use wooden farming tools, and use magic to find the evil one killing their children.
Writer/director S. Pierre Yameogo offers more than exoticism. He gives us a feminist fable set in a very male-dominated world, with the pleasures of a mystery thrown in. (The mystery is not who’s killing the children, but how Napoko received the blame.) But he ends the film too soon. I would have liked another 10 minutes or so to better finish the story.
The press material compares Delwende to Ousmane Sembene’s Moolaadé. It’s an appropriate comparison in terms of settings and themes. But while Delwende is a very fine film, it doesn’t approach Sembene’s work in story, character, or sheer cinematic brilliance. But then, few films do.
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