In this magical, richly symbolic quest-movie, a supposedly cursed baby is saved, though crippled, from ritual infanticide by a childless woman who weaves shrouds for the dead. In adulthood, Kapila is haunted by a blind, wrathful sorceress who arms him with a staff of vengeance to use against the society that sentenced him to death-and encounters his Poet-Father, eager to deny his guilt for trying to destroy his son. An earthbound Luke Skywalker and an African Oedipus, Kapila must find his way from metaphysically arid highlands to the eternal promise of the sea.

Raymond Rajaonarivelo, Madagascar, 1996; 85 minutes