Suffer a witch to live...

In his sixth feature film, S. Pierre Yameogo explores how patriarchy and gender discrimination are tied to superstitious customs and presents a stirring, clear-eyed catalyst for change in his courageous young heroine. Set in his native Burkina Faso, Delwende is compact, suspenseful and unafraid of depicting vice in social constructs and beauty in the natural world. Made in 2005, the movie had its U.S. premiere in February 2006 at the Portland International Film Festival and is getting a weeklong run at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

In the small village of Saaba, drought and a meningitis epidemic are exacting a heavy toll. Children are dying and the villagers attribute the deaths to the work of an unknown witch. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Pougbila, played with graceful aplomb by dancer Claire Ilboudo, tells her mother Napoko (Blandine Yameogo) she has been raped. She refuses to name her assailant or discuss it with her father Diahrra (Celestin Zongo); he sends for her fiancé in the neighboring village in order to marry her off immediately, purportedly to spare her from whatever is causing the rash of deaths. She doesn’t want to go, and Napoko intervenes on her behalf without success. Pougbila leaves with her husband.

When the chief’s niece dies, the elders of Saaba summon a priest who conducts a literal witch-hunt in the form of a Siongho ceremony in which two male virgins carry a wooden figure around the village to discover who is responsible for the evil befalling the community. When one of the young men collapses, Diahrra takes his place. Lo and behold, the Siongho points to Napoko as the witch. She is expelled and walks for three days to her relative’s village. They ask her to drink a truth potion to prove she’s not a witch; when she can’t, they ostracize her as well. By this time, Pougbila, having refused to sleep with her husband, returns to Saaba and vows to correct the injustice of her mother’s banishment. She marches off to find Napoko and learns that she’s gone to the capital city of Ouagadougou. She looks for her there in shelters where old women accused of witchcraft are sent.

The take-away image from Delwende, which is subtitled Get Up and Walk!, is of a determined young woman striding across the countryside with a defiant look on her face, following in the footsteps of her weary, teary-eyed mother. Pougbila sees through the ancient beliefs and traditions that, while sincerely adhered to by many, are used by men to oppress women. Experience has taught her that her people’s customs perpetuate misogyny.

Yameogo is able to convey his pointed social message with a subtle yet steady rhythm derived from the physicality of his mainly nonprofessional actors. Arguably, the most evocative footage in the movie is of all the elderly women Pougbila sees in the Ouagadougou shelters as she searches for her mother. With the exception of Elie (Thomas Ngourma), the idiot savant who is always playing a French-language radio station—the only link to the outside world—and who sees all that goes on in Saaba, Yameogo depicts males as backward, irrational and excitable. They gesticulate and are prone to hysteria, whereas the women are still and placid, focused on their daily labors. Pougbila shatters this dichotomy. With a strong sense of purpose and harnessed energy, she moves and is the embodiment of progress.

Distributor: New Yorker Films
Cast: Blandine Yameogo, Claire Ilboudo, Celestin Zongo, Abdoulaye Komboudri, Daniel Kabore, Jules Taonssa and Thomas Ngourma
Director/Screenwriter/Producer: S. Pierre Yameogo
Genre: Drama; More- and French-language, subtitled
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 89 min.
Release date: October 8 NY