"l am and shall remain a bilakoro!"
In a small African village, female circumcision ritual is still practiced. Six girls escape from the brutal purification ceremonies and four of them ask for protection from Collé who is a fellow wife of a man. Collé was the only woman who had saved her daughter from being cut. She casts a spell on the fugitive girls. Only Collé can dissolve the spell and until the spell is broken no one can come closer to the children from the village.
Between Islam and ancient traditions, one woman opposes the authority, the authority of elders and the authority of husband also.
While this film is presenting a panorama of the rural African life, providing subtle messages for globalization, questioning the dogma and feminism.
Not wrong to think that Collé becomes the first freethinker there. Guess what? She is called as Satan by the elders!
Even thinking the existence of women like Collé in somewhere in the world made a deep impact on me as an atheist.
Senegalese film director Ousmane Sembène gives a brilliant example of powerful filmmaking and the performances are unexpectedly beautiful and charming.