Writer-director Fanta Régina Nacro of Burkina Faso was already well known on the international festival circuit for her award-winning shorts when she released this feature film about violence between two ethnic groups in a fictional West African country. After 10 years of bloody war between the (also fictional) Nayaks and Bonandés, the leaders of each faction come together to make peace, an effort threatened by cynicism, mistrust and a history of atrocities on both sides. Resonating with actual events in South Africa, Sierra Leone and Rwanda, the film is notable for having a female perspective, particularly in the intense performance of professional actress Naky Sy Savané as a woman grief-stricken over her son's death and is bent on vengeance. Most of the rest of cast is made up of nonprofessionals, including many members of the Burkina Faso military. The film was conceived in memory of Nacro's uncle, who was brutally murdered after being accused of fomenting anti-government actions. Shot in eight weeks with mainly hand-held cameras in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, La nuit de la verité won awards at film festivals around the world. Upon its release in the U.S. in February 2006, The New York Times review acknowledged the difficulty of watching vivid depictions of gruesome atrocities but highly recommended its “originality and heart…showing us that the stain of violence is never completely erased.” Nacro was the first woman from her country to direct a fiction film, the short Un certain matin (1991).

by Rob Nixon