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Yaaba

✭ ✭ ✭ ✭   Read critic reviews

Burkina Faso, Switzerland, France · 1989
1h 30m
Director Idrissa Ouedraogo
Starring Fatimata Sanga, Noufou Ouédraogo, Roukietou Barry, Adama Ouédraogo
Genre Drama, Family

A ten-year-old boy from a small village makes an unexpected friend in an elderly woman named Sana. She calls herself "grandmother" but everybody calls her a witch. When the boy's cousin falls ill, the boy turns to Sana for help, and she concocts a medicine that saves the child's life, challenging her public perception.

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90

Sight & Sound by Jill Forbes

The other source of Yaaba's appeal, however, is its capacity to evoke universal truths by recounting simple events and so to transcend the confines of village, state or even continent.

100

Empire by John Minson

A wonderful portrait of Third World life that will leave you with a sense of real peace.

50

Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum

The locations are attractive, the performances are natural, and the details about local folkways are interesting, but the plot is a bit dull in spots.

85

Chicago Reader by Ronnie Scheib

Its directness breeds an intimacy, a sense of familiarity. By the film’s end we know every mud-bricked courtyard and intersection of the tiny village...

80

Los Angeles Times by Sheila Benson

Yaaba's power sneaks up on you. At first it seems as spare as the airy African Savannah where it unfolds. It's only with a little distance from its muted beauty that the plan of the film becomes clear.

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