A love triangle played out in the stark beauty of Burkina Faso, this early feature by Idrissa Ouedraogo plays as both a simple human story and a meditation on cosmic justice. In a parched landscape, where seemingly only giant baobabs grow, the villagers are waiting. A growing silence gives way to a distant sound - the food relief truck. Unwilling to live on such paltry handouts, the patriarch Salam travels to the city with his family.

On his way there, Issa, the suitor to Salam’s daughter Bintou joins them. In the city, Salam broke and in need, decides to sell his donkey and cart, but this temporary respite is soon shattered when his young son Ali is run over by a car and killed. Returning to their district, the family begins a new life near Salam’s old friend Tibo. But it transpires that Tibo’s son Tiga is in lust for Bintou and will attempt anything to gain her – even doing away with Issa. Beguilingly, Idrissa Ouedraogo shows much that characterizes his later works: the journey as profound metaphor, the landscape as defining feature, and the telling use of silence in the narrative.