Delwende

Name: Delwende
Genre: Drama

Switzerland, France, Burkina Faso · 2005
Rated NR · 1h 30m
Director S. Pierre Yameogo
Starring Blandine Yaméogo, Claire Ilboudo, Célestin Zongo, Abdoulaye Komboudri
Genre Drama

After a boy dies of meningitis, Napoko Diarrha is accused of eating his soul due to a local superstition, and she faces trial before the elders. She flees town before the trial starts, settling in Ouagadougou, but her health soon declines. Years later, her grown daughter searches for her.

We hate to say it, but we can't find anywhere to view this film.

What are people saying?

Be the first to comment about this film.

What are critics saying?

New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis

In Delwende the African filmmaker S. Pierre Yameogo tackles social injustice in present-day Burkina Faso with grace, economy and exquisitely controlled anger.

BoxOffice Magazine by John P. McCarthy

Yameogo is able to convey his pointed social message with a subtle yet steady rhythm derived from the physicality of his mainly nonprofessional actors.

100

San Francisco Chronicle by Jonathan Curiel

This West African drama looks at a single village in the throes of change -- change that reveals people's cruelty, their fixation on being right, and the clash between modernity and traditional beliefs.

Time Out by Joshua Land

The latest in a boomlet of explicitly antipatriarchal African art movies to reach American shores, Delwende bears a passing resemblance to the great Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene’s 2004 swan song, Moolaadé, in its deliberate pacing, lightly stylized performances and strong feel for the rhythms of contemporary village life, where young men in baseball caps may be seen carrying out ancient customs.