Haramuya

Haramuya is in some ways a variation of Laada (1991). Set in Ouagadougou, this time the focus is on the contrast between the richer, more Westernised, and the poorer, more traditional parts of town. Ouaga has been growing over the decades, incorporating once independent villages into its infrastructure. Once, only fishermen and their families lived here by the sea, a space that’s now one of the more impoverished fringes of the city.

An old fisherman at odds with the times tries to live by his faith: Islam. He has two wives, as well as two sons who both try to make some money downtown, not always legally. Crime lurks seemingly at every corner and drags in even the innocents – as the pater familias finds out the hardest way… Haramuya is much grimmer than Laada, but also sharper in tone, with some deft touches of genre. Quite a few noir tropes come to play here, with Ouagadougou taking its place alongside New York, Manila, Mumbai and Bogota as a maze of violence full of hapless wannabe players running for their lives. But there’s also the father and his belief in God, and the tests to which life puts his faith – which adds a truly unique dimension to an already singular piece of cinema!

– Olaf Möller

• 

• 

•