Tilai (The Law) (1990)

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The unbending nature of village law wreaks havoc upon an all-too human family in this unusual film from the tiny nation of Burkina Faso. In the story, a young man has fallen in love with and become affianced to a young woman, which is not too strange. But then his father swiftly exercises his… More The unbending nature of village law wreaks havoc upon an all-too human family in this unusual film from the tiny nation of Burkina Faso. In the story, a young man has fallen in love with and become affianced to a young woman, which is not too strange. But then his father swiftly exercises his customary parental prerogatives, and marries the girl instead. Now the boy's fiancee has officially become his mother, and his father's second wife. The distraught lovers run away together, but are actively sought by the otherwise easygoing village authorities for having (technically) committed the crime of incest. When the man's other son pretends to have carried out the father's decree that the boy be killed for having disgraced the family name, he, too, suffers. Finally, the father suffers from his bewilderment at how his being so clearly in the right can cause such disasters. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi