FARO: GODDESS OF THE WATERS (FARO – LA REINE DES EAUX) World Cinema: African Showcase

In this assured debut from Salif Traore, a former assistant to Souleymane Cisse and Abderrahmane Sissako, we follow the story of an engineer who returns to his rural village in Mali many years after having been cast out for being born out of wedlock.

Zanga (Fili Traore) returns to the village of his birth to uncover the identity of his father and initiate a waterworks project. However, the fact that his arrival coincides with the drowning of a young villager alerts the village elders. They confer and determine that Faro, the spirit who rules the waters, has been angered by Zanga’s return. The only way to appease her anger is with sacrifice.

The African landscape is photographed beautifully and the script co-written by Salif Traore and Olivier Lorelle, deftly navigates that maelstrom of modern Africa while giving voice to the power of an individual to affect change.