Yam daabo / The Choice (2022 restoration by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project)

Idrissa Ouédraogo: Yam daabo (BF 1986).

    

Valinta / Le Choix / La scelta.

    Burkina Faso 1986. Director: Idrissa Ouédraogo. Scen.: Idrissa Ouédraogo. F.: Jean Monsigny, Sekou Ouédraogo, Issaka Thiombano. M.: Arnaud Blin. Mus.: Francis Bebey, Betty Aoua. Int.: Moussa Bologo, Aoua Guiraud, Assita Ouédraogo, Fatima Ouédraogo, Oumarou Ouédraogo, Salif Ouédraogo, Rasmané Ouédraogo. Prod.: Les Films de l’Avenir, Ministère de la Coopération. DCP. D.: 80’. Col. Language: Mooré.

    Copy from The Film Foundation.

    Restored in 2022 by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata and L’Image Retrouvée laboratories, in collaboration with Les Films de la Plaine and the family of Idrissa Ouédraogo. Restoration funded by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. Special thanks to Mohamed Challouf. Restored in 4K from the 16 mm original negative camera and the magnetic sound. Color grading was finalized with the help of director of photography Sekou Ouédraogo.

    This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the FEPACI and UNESCO – in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna – to help locate, restore and disseminate African cinema.
    Introduced by Aboubakar Sanogo (FEPACI) e Cecilia Cenciarelli
    Mooré version with English subtitles on the DCP by Titra Films Paris.

    Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna 2023: Cinemalibero, with e-subtitles in Italian.

Viewed at Jolly Cinema, 24 June 2023

Mohamed Challouf (Bologna catalog 2023): " I don’t remember where I first met Idrissa Ouédraogo, but what I do know is that we immediately struck up a brotherly friendship. I had seen his first two shorts Les Écuelles and Issa le tisserand and invited him to present them at the second edition of the Giornate del Cinema africano in Perugia, which was held from 26 February to 3 March 1984. It was the first Italian festival dedicated to African cinema that I had created, with the support of my friend Enzo Forini and the encouragement of the many African students enrolled at the University for Foreigners in the Umbrian city, which today would be inconceivable. The presence of Idrissa and Férid Boughédir who participated with Caméra d’Afrique – aroused great interest among the young people. "

" I met with Idrissa again at my first FESPACO, in February 1985, in the midst of great cultural and political excitement sparked by Thomas Sankara’s revolution. Ousmane Sembène, Tahar Cheriaa, Med Hondo, Lionel Ngakane, Jean-Michel Tchissoukou, Haile Gerima were all at the forefront of supporting the actions of this young president who wanted to restore Africa’s dignity and free it from neo-colonialism, corruption and the crushing world economic order. In 1987, again at FESPACO, I attended the world premiere of Yam Daabo. After 36 years I still vividly remember the emotion and pride I felt seeing the film’s first images. The “choice” the title refers to is the courageous decision of a rural family from the Sahel to refuse international aid from USAID and set off looking for other lands, but also for their own dignity and emancipation. A long sequence of great symbolic power, punctuated by the soundtrack of the great Francis Bebey. My happiness was indescribable: Idrissa proved to be a master interacting with the great African pioneers, who, like him, had chosen cinema to fight against the crushing world economic order. With his subsequent films, Idrissa’s star became part of the constellation of great festivals such as Cannes and Berlin, but in my view the pride and dignity of the first sequence of Yam Daabo make it the most beautiful and vibrant film of our history. " Mohamed Challouf

AA: In rural Burkina Faso, the daughter Bintou needs to choose between the gentle Issa and the violent Tiga. She becomes pregnant by Issa and is banished from home by her father. But when the baby is born, she is welcomed back, and there is a celebration. 

The family is poor and visits the nearby city to sell their cart and donkey. Their little son Ali is killed in a car accident.

Raogo, a family friend, has been living in the city but returns to the rural community, having seen the world.

The furious and jealous Tiga runs amok, attempts to kill Issa, and turns to theft in the city.

Although there is a love triangle, a case of forbidden love, unwanted pregnancy, a crime narrative of attempted murder and robbery, and a chase, Yam daabo is not story-driven.

Mesmerizingly restored on 4K from 16 mm originals, there is a vibrant, gentle and vivid image world. The beauty of the faces, the nature and the clothes is highlighted. 

Everything is beauty in this movie shot in exteriors in the luminous sunlight of Burkina Faso. Aesthetical concepts to cover this work would include grace and nobility.

A subtle and luminous work, Yam daabo belongs to the films that are about the fabric of life, the very essence of being. The flow of life is observed by a look of love. It is a subtle poetic achievement of sound and vision.