【African Month Special】 Samba Traoré (Burkina Faso, 1992, R16)

Rating: R16 – Restricted to persons 16 years and over; contains violence, adult themes & coarse language.

Hosted by Trevor!

This film by Ouedraogo feels like I'm watching a Western stripped down to its bare essentials: the protagonist and their relationship to the land they inhabit in the moment. We follow Samba, who has returned unannounced to his home village, bringing with him a suitcase full of money. Despite his protests that he earned this money in the city, the villagers have their doubts. In actuality, he held up a gas station and unintentionally killed its attendant, and is now in hiding. Meanwhile, he tries to move on from this crime as he marries a woman and bears a child with her. Despite this, the pressure of capture forces him to consider leaving both his wife and child as well, and it is this 'Crime and Punishment' struggle with guilt and morality that imbues every interaction Samba has with the rest of the villagers with suspense. But similar to Howard Hawk's Rio Bravo (1959), there is such a strong palpable unhurriedness and calm that is evoked by the villagers and their harmonious relationship with nature, that Samba so desperately tries to grasp but often can't. Deliverance is upon him, but that does not mean one is unable to luxuriate amidst the wind blowing through the trees, or the pristine flowing of a river. A taut African thriller if there ever was one.