With some 20 shorts and documentaries to her credit, Fanta Regina Nacro makes an impressive feature debut with this simmering insight into the tribal hatreds that threaten to keep Africa a divided continent.
There's a Shakespearean feel to the feud between the governing Nayaks and rebellious Bonande and the careful delineation of the key players prior to the crucial peace ceremony gives the film a theatricality that, ironically, makes its formalities and tensions seem all the more authentic and unnerving.
What's even more noteworthy is that the entire male cast are non-professionals drawn from the Burkino Faso army. The shadow of genocide hangs over proceedings and the climactic tragedy is all-too inevitable. But Nacro astutely ends the picture on a note of quiet optimism that suggests the possibility for peaceful co-existence.