The first full-length film made in Burkina Faso, Gaston Kabore's Wend Kuuni follows a mute orphan boy adopted into a Mossi family in pre-colonial times who regains his voice only after witnessing a tragedy that unlocks his own buried history.
Fun fact: Wend Kuuni means God's gift in Moore, the language the entire film is performed in, and it won the Cesar Award for Best French-Language Film in 1985.