"Djanat" (which means original paradise) is the story of a crisis situation in the backyard of the director's family, Chloé Aïcha Boro, in Dédougou, Burkina Faso. The death of her uncle, the patriarch, a religious authority in the region and guarantor of the transmission of dogmatic Mandingo Islam, led to a legal procedure of inheritance before Western-inspired courts, thus breaking with a secular tradition of oral transmission. This family is not an isolated case of land conflict. According to the media that have taken up the subject, such as Radio Balafon, which used the example of Chloé Aïcha Boro's family court, this is a "social bomb" in the making in West African societies. In Bobo Dioulasso, the courthouse was burnt down in a wave of popular protest against modern, Western-inspired justice.
The court became the theatre where the future of a family emblematic of an entire society was played out. Little by little, tongues are loosened and points of view clash until the trial. In this pivotal period, where Western modernism is transforming identities even in family ties, traditional social structures and religious codes, how do you go from being a land keeper to a property owner? What is the relationship with one's heritage?

A film by Chloé Aïcha Boro selected for the FESPACO 2023 (Feature documentary)