September 2005Issue 382



The Night of Truth

In an unnamed African country, after years of civil war and vicious killing, the two sides come together. The rebel colonel and the President, sincere about peace, organize a reconciliation ceremony and celebrations. But on each side are people who cannot forget the violent deaths of people close to them.

Fanta Nacro, Burkina Faso’s first woman director, has all rebel and government soldiers played by members of the Burkina Faso army – as if to point out a mutual understanding. But women have the key roles in her story. The colonel’s wife is fearful and suspicious; the President’s wife, haunted by her son’s horrific death and mutilation, wants revenge, so her son’s spirit can leave the earth.

Night of Truth, aimed at a wide African audience, is about African people dealing with African problems. It’s not about the ‘West’s’ involvement, not about arms sales – people are usually killed with machetes – nor is it about a role for the UN. It’s about what Africans can do for themselves, but has a universal message. Well acted, subtly directed, with nice satirical touches, it shows the changes people have to make to live together. And which some just cannot make.

Product information
by Fanta Régina Nacro
Star rating
*****




also by...
THIS AUTHOR

Fast Food Nation
Customers, workers and animals suffer.

Bamako

Ghosts

Apocalypto

Language Tools
Powered by Ultralingua

Join over 30,000 people just like you. Get e-mail updates about new content, action alerts, contests, and more!

other articles
FROM THIS ISSUE

Blenheim & Bangalore
The relationship between English aristocrats and impoverished Indian farmers is all too evident to Rahul Rao.

Polyp's Big Bad World – September 2005
Two faces of wanton murder, as seen by Polyp.

Interview with Hassan Juma'a Awad from Iraq's General Union of Oil Workers
Trade unionist Hassan Juma’a Awad stood up against Saddam and now he’s standing up for oil workers against the occupation of Iraq and the privatization of its oil.

Breaking silence
Arab women have suddenly started appearing on reality TV, to Reem Haddad's surprise.

Ukraine
When Ukrainians celebrated New Year 2005 in Kiev in a delirious sea of orange and anthems of the revolution, the future looked bright. But divisions remain.

recently
IN THIS COLUMN

Fish Tank
A film that gets inside the mind and feelings of a young person deeply at odds with the world. Written and directed by Andrea Arnold.

Birdwatchers
The reality of indigenous life in the Amazon. Directed and co-written by Marco Bechis

Three Miles North of Molkom
At a new age festival in Sweden, a group of people who’ve never met before explore tree-hugging, sweat lodges, shamanism, tantric sex.

Sin Nombre
A road movie cum Western. Or, rather, it's a railroad movie and the 'West' - where innumerable migrants are headed on railroad wagons - is more accurately the 'North', the US.

Burma VJ – reporting from a closed country
This is the story of ‘Joshua’, an underground video journalist. By Anders Ostergaard






Voices from the margins:

Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.


Subscribe to NI now!