DELWENDE: GET UP AND WALK! (1995,
"There are people in the capital that still believe
in "soul eaters" today. I wanted to describe through the film that it
is important for traditional beliefs to evolve and for
He who lies on his
back and spits gets saliva all over himself.—Delwende: Stand Up & Walk!
In its
opening moments Delwende
promises to be a film in the “Return to the Sources” mold of African film—set
in the
Everything changes,
however, and quickly. Young people in
the village start dying mysterious deaths.
A shattered Pougbila reveals to her mother, Napoko (played by the veteran actress Blandine
Yaméogo, who was so powerful
as the hunchback mother Sogolon in Keïta), that she
has been raped, but will not reveal the name of the rapist. Napoko goes to her
husband, Diahrra, and tells him he must speak with
his daughter, get her to confess to him, and then go and deal with the criminal
who has done this horrible thing. Diahrra brushes her off, berating her for bringing up such
a thing while the village is trying to cope with the deaths that are occurring.
Diahrra
soon announces to his wife that he has decided to send Pougbila
off to the neighboring
Meanwhile,
the village has sunk deeper into fear and despair over the deaths of the young
people. There is a growing sense that
witchcraft must be abroad, and when the niece of the chief is smitten, they
decide to take action. The call goes out
for the seer, Raogo, who specializes in such matters
(he is played by a man who really does earn his living in this way). Raogo conducts a Siongho ceremony,
in which two young virgin males are called upon to bear the facsimile of a
shrouded corpse on their shoulders and use it as a magnet to seek out the
perpetrator. The belief is that the
spirits of the ancestors will guide the siongho to the evil-doer.
(Those who have seen Souleymane Cissé’s remarkable Yeelen will recognize a similar ceremony there.)
Conveniently
for Diahrra, the siongho points to Napoko as the witch, and she is cast out of the
village. She wanders off from village to
village, shunned even by her own relatives, until she makes her way to the
capital city of
Eventually, Pougbila will learn of her mother’s fate, and without a second thought this sixteen-year-old girl will take action. Revealing the quality both of her character and her upbringing, she will demonstrate the strength and determination of a much older woman in her attempt to confront her father, rescue her mother, and see that justice, decency, and honesty are restored to her village.
* * *
Delwende is another success for the film industry of
Director
Pierre Yaméogo was born in
* * *
Delwende (which means “I
surrender to God” or “I rely on God” in the Moré
language) had its genesis in a television documentary that Yaméogo
did for French Channel 2 on falsely accused “soul-eaters.” Feeling that the documentary did not go far
enough into the human dimension of the issue, and moreover would not be seen by
women in
The film is certainly a critique of
an intolerable social practice, the way that women are being victimized and
ostracized by being labeled as witches. But
the film has a larger dimension to it as well.
It is a far-reaching social critique reminiscent of the films of Ousmane Sembène, in whose
footsteps director Pierre Yaméogo clearly walks. We are shown how men have abused their
cultural prerogatives for selfish, self-serving ends, betraying and corrupting
the traditional practices that provided meaning and harmony in their
world. It is once again a woman’s act
of refusal that provides the moral center of the film, and is the embodiment
of hope and redemption. The film’s
primary meaning, then, lies in the subtitle that Yaméogo
has given to this film: Get Up and Walk! It is a sign of respect and a call to action.
The subtitle also provides the central
visual motif of the film: the act of walking.
This is a very skillfully crafted film by an experienced director, one
who knows how to work his camera to reinforce meaning. In the first part of the film, the village
and villagers are revealed to us both through close-ups and through crane shots
lifting high above the village for perspective.
When Napoko is banished, the camera remains
somewhat distant, accentuating her isolation and diminution against the
backdrop of nature. But when Pougbila begins to take action, the camera remains tightly
glued to her as she marches off—the background changes as she traverses the
country, from rural area to city, but her determined face does not.
In this film, as in so many films
made by Africans themselves, social critique and defiance does not come from
outside individuals or from foreign NGOs leading Africans to awareness; it
comes from an African woman herself, a young woman, one who is willing to
arise, entrust herself to the deeper values of her heritage, and begin walking
down the path of justice and integrity.
--Notes
by Michael Dembrow