An exquisite clarity attests to the sophistication of Ouedraogo's technique in this coming-of-age tale. Twelve-year-old Bila befriends an old woman whom the village has banished as a witch, based on ancient superstition. (An orphan since infancy, she has no kin to connect her to society.) Only Bila recognizes in her the qualities of a yaaba, or grandmother, and, when his cousin Nopoko is near death, of a healer. Two more charming children than Bila and Nopoko the cinema has not seen. But sentimentality keeps a safe distance from this tale, rooted in the social organization of African village life, its problems and its teetering, like Bila himself, on the edge of change. "The film draws its interest from opposing currents, from a heightening of the senses and from the love and the confidence the director shows towards his protagonists. The power of life and of cinema stems from the certainty of its constantly being endangered." (Fredéric Strauss)