La nuit de la vérité (or Night of Truth in English) is the first feature film of Burkina Faso's first female director, Fanta Régina Nacro. It's a drama set in a fictionalized West African country chronicling the efforts of two ethnic groups, the ruling Nayaks and Bonandés rebels, to strike a deal leading to reconciliation--putting an end to a 10-year civil war.
I would classify Night of Truth more as a fable than a completely realistic tale but there is certainly a great amount of verisimilitude here, especially in the way in which the characters reflect different attitudes as they react to the possibility of a lasting peace.
The leader of the rebels is Colonel Theo Bogwanda (Moussa Cissé), an imposing man who initially (we are led to believe) is the hero of the piece (only soon to discover he has a horrendously checkered past). The Colonel must cajole his wife Soumari (Georgette Pare) into attending the reconciliation ceremony and festivities as she has been traumatized as a witness to atrocities committed during the war.
An even more traumatized victim is Fatou (Sami Rama) who married a Nayak man killed by the rebels and whose aunt resides at The Colonel's compound. Fatou is harassed by the genial but vengeful Tomato (Rasmane Ouedraogo) who like many of the rebels do not agree with the Colonel's policy of reconciliation and seek to inflame the passions of those who cannot forget the atrocities inflicted on them.
On the Nayak side there is President Miossoune (Adama Ouegraogo) who also must persuade his embittered wife Edna (Naky Sy Savane) to attend the ceremony. Her young son was savagely murdered by the rebels in which his testicles were cut off and stuffed in his mouth.
When the two groups finally meet the tension is quite palpable. Midway through the meeting, there is an agreement to lay down arms on both sides.
But the good will is jeopardized when Tomato starts beating on a war drum and all the soldiers simultaneously then take up arms again.
Edna, determined to find out the man responsible for her son's murder, finally has a private conversation with the Colonel, who shockingly admits that it was he who committed the atrocity against her son. It's a shattering moment as The Colonel was the chief promoter of reconciliation among both groups (despite begging for forgiveness, Edna is completely unmoved).
I could understand Edna going "full throttle Lady MacBeth" but I'm not sure if I could suspend my disbelief as to how she pulls off having The Colonel murdered (after all for The Colonel to have gone missing for even a short period of time would have probably triggered a full-scale search among his men).
Nonetheless, The Colonel ends up barbecued to death by a few of the Nayaks with Edna gleefully dancing around the "funeral pyre" after "marinading" him with what I assume to be gasoline.
Equally unbelievable is when The President guns down his wife after she too contributes to wrecking the peace agreement.
Despite a few casualties, remarkably the two groups manage to bury their dead together and complete the peace agreement.
The film does an excellent job of explaining the depth of feelings of vengefulness on both sides of these kinds of ethnic conflicts reminiscent of what occurred between the Hutus and the Tutsis in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
In addition to the excellent performances, as a first directorial feature, Nacro's achievement is highly impressive.
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