‘Yaaba’

Idrissa Ouedraogo’s 1990 Cannes prize-winner is a human comedy, told with the greatest elegance and simplicity. Set in a village in Burkina Faso, it has, like its rural European counterparts, its typical small-town characters. Most notable is an old woman (Fatimata Sanga) thought to be a witch. Two children (Noufou Ouedraogo and Roukietou Barry, pictured from left) meet her on a forbidden visit to a cemetery, and in this setting and later, they discover this “witch” is a humorous character, innocent of everything of which she’s been accused. The film ends elegiacally, with a feeling of universality and closure (Cinemax Friday at 7:30 a.m.).