The film is set in a small African village. Bila (Noufou Ouédraogo) is a ten-year-old boy who makes friends with an old woman called Sana (Fatimata Sanga), who has been accused of witchcraft by her village, and has become a social outcast. Only Bila is respectful of her, and calls her "Yaaba" (Grandmother). When Bila's cousin, Nopoko (Roukietou Barry), falls ill, a medicine man insists that Sana has stolen the girl's soul. Sana undergoes a long and grueling journey to find a medicine to save Nopoko's life. Sana manages to save Nopoko's life, but is still treated as a witch. After Sana dies, the real reason why she is hated in the village is uncovered, but her love and wisdom she invested in Bila and Nopoko lives on.
Thomas is a smuggler, shipping European refugees who hope to find a better life in Africa. One day his boat sinks and he is washed up on the African coast as the only survivor. He then makes his way to the nearest city - Drexciya.
Cinéastes, acteurs et autres protagonistes du FESPACO 2001 (Festival du Film Panafricain de Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) s’interrogent sur l’avenir du cinéma africain et sur la difficulté de faire des films dans des pays qui n’ont bien souvent aucune institution consacrée au cinéma. Chacun essaye de chercher quel serait l’idéal de ce cinéma en devenir. Ce film est un essai, un état des lieux de la production cinématographique en Afrique en ce début de millénaire. Il s’agit d’un manifeste, d’un constat terrible, sans appel. En offrant la parole aux cinéastes africains, tels Gaston Kaboré, Sembène Ousmane, Dani Kouyaté, Mohamed Camara, Kitia Touré etc, le film initie les spectateurs à une découverte de l’Afrique trop souvent cachée derrière le voile pudique et pur de la coopération économique et artistique.
A lion causes ravages among the livestock. Several people disappear. Seeing the village chief is doing nothing, a young shepherd, Samba, decides to follow the lion’s tracks on his own. But not just anyone can hunt a lion and Samba is trapped by it. Despite his courage, the lion almost kills him. Luckily, a young hunter appears and kills the animal. Samba’s life is saved, but not his honor. He wants to take the lion’s tale back to the village, but Tanko won’t let him. The trophy is his. The lion is dead, yet people keep on disappearing.
After ruling for 20 years, the King is on his deathbed. He summons his son, Tanga, and his brother, Halyare, to avoid a bloody battle for the succession. However, despite his last will, the King cannot prevent Tanga from taking power and instating a reign of terror. A few years later, the tyrant learns that Salam is not his son, contrary to what he believed up until then. A personal battle begins between the two men. One of them must die. A Greek tragedy against an African background.
The film draws on the African oral tradition. Set in a nineteenth century village, it follows a group of characters from Kaboré's debut film Wend Kuuni. Wend Kuuni (Serge Yanogo) is a young man who is suspected of being responsible, through the use of sorcery, for his adopted sister's ill health. To help his sister, and clear his name, he tries to find a healer who uses the legendary "lion's herbs". He also searches for his own roots.
Moctar is a young boy who, although born in France, has grown up in Mali. At the age of eleven, he moves with his family to live in Paris. Moctar struggles to adjust to life in France, and is homesick for Africa. He begins to see visions of a hyena in the street. When he tells people, nobody believes him. He is laughed at by his schoolmates and sent to the school psychologist. He meets a man in the street called Paulo who helps Moctar to understand his visions.
When school is out, the children take over the street. This is where they learn to fight and steal, where they fall in love and play football, where they dance, cook, make toys or musical instruments, keep shop... All the resourcefulness of these children from Burkina Faso is featured in a series of quick and humorous sketches.
The film takes place in Niger and the surrounding region of the Sahel. It begins with the initiation and establishment as queen of the Aznas of a young girl. The young queen, Sarraounia, becomes an accomplished warrior when she defends her tribe from an enemy tribe. Accomplished in archery and herbalism, she is a renowned sorceress. Meanwhile, French colonialists Paul Voulet and Julien Chanoine set out to conquer new lands for the French colonial empire. As they advance across the land they rape women and leave burning villages in their wake.
A blind violinist called Sibi has been singing and playing in cabarets in the most popular neighborhoods of Koudougou, Burkina Faso, for more than 30 years. He knows the origins of the ethnic groups and the most important family lines in the region. The film goes to the encounter of this extraordinary man who holds, despite himself and surrounded by general indifference, the living history of the region, and its oral traditions, now threatened with extinction. A message in a bottle before it is too late and these memories disappear forever.