Tilaï – Screening in 4 September Tilaï
Idrissa Ouedraogo | Burkina Faso | 1990
Rating: PG Runtime: 81 minutes
| Director: Idrissa Ouedraogo Producer: Idrissa Ouedraogo Screenplay: Idrissa Ouedraogo Cinematography: Jean Monsigny, Pierre-Laurent Chénieux Editor: Luc Barnier Music: Abdullah Ibrahim | Rasmané Ouédraogo (Saga) Ina Cissé (Nogma) Roukietou Barry (Kuilga) Assane Ouédraogo (Kougri) Sibidou Sidibe (Poko) Moumouni Ouedraogo (Tenga) Mariam Barry (Bore) |
Winner of the 1990 Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Tilaï is a compelling drama set in Burkina Faso prior to its colonisation by France.
Tilaï translates as “the law” or “the code of honour” in the Mossi language: a system that will loom large in the fate of our protagonist, Saga.
After a prolonged absence, Saga returns to his village to find his father has taken Nogma, Saga’s fiancee as his second wife. Distraught, Saga banishes himself to a straw hut he constructs on the outskirts of the village. Tribal law is cast aside when Saga and Nogma embark on an illicit affair, at huge personal risk to themselves and their families.
“Flawlessly crafted, Ouedraogo’s picture takes us into an unfamiliar world of subsistence farmers and goatherds to examine some age-old generational conflicts. Though its setting is remote, the emotions that it explores are universal. Tilaï is an intense slice of life from an unexpected source.”
—Michael Walsh, Reeling Back
Screened in cooperation with Institut Français and the Embassy of France