Poverty dominates the dusty clay-built village where Faraw! Une mère des sables is set. Zamiatou has even less money to spend than the other villagers. Her family comprises two quarrelling little sons and a depressive teenage daughter, Hareyrata. Her husband was falsely accused of embezzlement and has just returned from prison, physically and mentally broken. Zamiatou is willing to do just about anything to maintain her family, but she doesn’t want her beautiful daughter to go and work for rich foreigners. Finally she visits an old lover, who gives her a donkey and a water container so she can go and sell water in the desert.The beautifully photographed Faraw! Une mère des sables provides a biting commentary on widespread government corruption and its consequences for the people. The overwhelming sandy and rocky landscape functions as a mirror of the fearlessness of the heroine (played by Aminata Ousmane). The beautiful music score by Harouna Barry and Ibrahim Dicko supports the feeling of timelessness of life in the desert where passing camel caravans and everyday activities such as hewing stone shape the rhythm.
