African Film Archive

Yaaba

1989 — Idrissa Ouedraogo — Burkina Faso, France, Switzerland

feature · drama · flourishing

Filmed in Tougouzague village, Yaaba follows ten-year-old Bila's friendship with Sana, an old woman shunned by the village as a witch whom he calls Yaaba, meaning grandmother, and won the Sakura Gold prize at the 1989 Tokyo Film Festival.

Fun fact: It was selected as Burkina Faso's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1990 Academy Awards, though it did not receive a nomination.

Notes: France/Burkina Faso (Upper Volta)/Switzerland co-production.

Verification: verified · Sources: [1] [2] [3]

Poster source: Wikipedia