10 Best Movies from Burkina Faso to Watch First

10 Essential Films from Burkina Faso

Ranked native cinema in Burkina Faso’s own creative voice.

1. 

   1. Wend Kuuni

   Wênd Kûuni · 1982

   In pre-colonial West Africa, a traveling peddler finds a mute boy abandoned in the bush and leaves him with a village family, where the child slowly heals — until a shock finally unlocks the secret of his silence. A landmark of African cinema.

2. 

   2. Grandmother

   Yaaba · 1989

   In a small African village, a ten-year-old boy befriends a lonely old woman whom everyone shuns as a witch, calling her Yaaba — grandmother. When his cousin falls ill, her quiet wisdom proves vital. Idrissa Ouédraogo's tender, humanist drama.

3. 

   3. Buud Yam

   1997

   Now a young man, Wend Kuuni still carries the stigma of his origins in an early-19th-century village. When his beloved adoptive sister falls gravely ill and suspicion turns on him, he sets off across the land in search of a cure. A sweeping sequel to Wend Kuuni.

4. 

   4. Sira

   2023

   After a jihadist attack in the Sahel leaves her stranded in the desert, a young nomadic woman refuses to submit to her captors and, alone and resourceful, plots her resistance. A fierce, feminist survival drama.

5. 

   5. Anger of the Gods

   La colère des dieux · 2003

   When a king dies, his son inherits the throne along with the burdens of tradition and power that come with it. An African historical drama from Idrissa Ouédraogo.

6. 

   6. Eye of the Storm

   L'Œil du cyclone · 2015

   At a war-crimes tribunal in an unnamed African country, an idealistic young defense lawyer takes on the case of a former rebel commander reviled as an inhuman monster, digging into the past that made him. A searching legal drama.

7. 

   7. Desrances

   2019

   A Haitian man who fled to the Ivory Coast after his family was massacred builds a new life there with his wife and daughter — until civil war erupts and, separated from his loved ones, his fierce young daughter sets out to find him. A drama of war and family.

8. 

   8. Tasuma

   2003

   A proud old veteran who once fought for France in its colonial wars grows tired of waiting endlessly for the pension he was promised, buying a mill on credit for his village as his fighting spirit reawakens against the bureaucracy stalling him. A warm satirical drama.

9. 

   9. Night Nursery

   Garderie nocturne · 2021

   In a working-class quarter of Bobo-Dioulasso, a woman known as Madame Coda takes in the children of sex workers each night while their mothers walk the streets until dawn. A compassionate documentary about the women and the caretaker who shelters their kids.

10. 

    10. Kini and Adams

    1997

    Two friends in a rural southern African village pour their hopes into fixing up a battered old car, dreaming of driving to the city to start their lives over — but hardship and jealousy test their bond. A drama about friendship and thwarted dreams.