Directed by Idrissa Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso). Produced by TVE and UNICEF. Idrissa Ouedraogo's magical drama tells the story of five-year old Madi who lives with his parents and baby brother in a remote village in Burkina Faso. Walking home with his mother Awa after she's been collecting wood, Madi finds a turtle dove caught in a trap. He's about to kill it, to put it out of its suffering, when the dove speaks, telling Madi that if he spares its life, he will come to Madi's aid whenever he needs it. All he has to do is click his fingers! Accepting the the deal, Madi frees the bird. Later that day, after Salif, Madi's father has quarrelled with his mother and shouted at Madi for trying to steal eggs from the hen coop because he was hungry, Madi clicks his fingers and summons the turtle dove's help. From the surrounding desert a band of mounted horsemen gallop in and summon the village. The chief horseman ? who is, he tells Madi, the turtle dove - berates the village men for neglecting their families. "Aren't you ashamed of yourselves", he demands of them, for letting their wives do all the work, walking for hours each day to fetch water, looking after the children. Didn't their ancestors used to dig wells with their bare arms, he asks them...
Conceived by renowned African filmmakers from across the continent, filmed on location in Benin, Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Mozambique, Malawi, Nigeria and South Africa, these dramas and documentaries lend an artist’s view to the work undertaken to help countries accelerate progress on child survival across Africa.
