Yaaba

Duration: 90

Year Published: 1989

Creator: New Yorker

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: This humanistic tale of African rural life, poised between daily life and legend, begins at a burial ground where a young girl named Nopoko and her 12-year-old cousin Bila have gone to visit the grave of Napoko's mother. Here, on the outskirts of their village, they find a proud, wizened old woman named Sana, a pariah thought to be a witch and blamed for the village's misfortunes. Fearful of her at first, the children befriend Sana and bestow upon her the nickname Yaaba or Grandmother. When Nopoko is stabbed in a fight with other chidlren, Sana's help is initially rebuffed by the townspeople but it is her knowledge of herbal remedies which, in the end, restores the girl's health. Through this special friendship, the maturing Bila crystallizes his position in relation to the community. The unhurried rhythm of the film, with its frequent use of earth-toned longshots, evokes a profound sense of harmony and continuity. Ouedraogo, who shot the film in his own village, has said. Yaaba is based on the tales of my childhood and on that kind of bedtime storytelling we hear just before falling asleep. (Circulates).