Zan Boko

Credits

Name: Zan Boko

Country: Burkina Faso

Year of publication: 1988

Color: color

Language : OF m. dt. UT

Duration: 85 Minuten

Direction: Kaboré, Gaston

Screenplay: Kaboré, Gaston

Camera: Ouedraogo, Sékou; Thiombiano, Issaka

Editing: Davanture, Andrée; Kanyala, Marie-Jeanne

Sound: Traoré, Issa

Actor: Kaboré, Colette; Nikiema, Joseph; Pafadnam, Gady

Abstract

Zan Boko means `the place where the placenta is buried` and symbolizes the continuity between past and present in African village societies. The film tells the story of a village swallowed up by one of Africa`s sprawling cities. Through this commonplace event, the film reveals the transformation of an agrarian, subsistence society into an industrialized, commodity economy and of an oral culture into a mass media culture.
Zan Boko is also the story of two men, from different worlds but sharing a common integrity. Tinga is a peasant farmer whose ancestral land is confiscated by a wealthy businessman. Yabre is a journalist whose uncompromising television expose of Tinga`s victimization is censored by a corrupt government.