Wend Kuuni is a landmark in African filmmakers' attempts to "return to the sources" of their culture, to recover a "usable" African past to solve the problems of the African present. Kabori adapts the measured rhythms of traditional African storytelling to create an authentically African cinematic language (see also Three Tales from Senegal). He retells an ancient fable about a mute, memoryless orphan, driven from his homeland, who is renamed Wend Kuuni ("God's Gift") by the grateful village which adopts him. Kabori uses this simple tale to demonstrate that traditional Mossi values can still provide answers to many problems besetting modern Africa, fractured by rural dislocation, refugees and political conflict.




Folklore and Mythology
People, Folkore and Myth

"A film of disarming sophistication and poetic irony."
-- Village Voice

"A gentle fable recalling a time of peace and plenty."
-- New York Times

Director: Gaston Kabori
Burkina Faso, 1982
In Mori with English subtitles
70 minutes

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