Simplice Herman Ganou

Polo has been roaming around Ouagadougou since childhood. He has grown up now. At 29, he is the eldest of a group who live from odd jobs and getting high. A harsh immersion in a reality as rough as the asphalt missing from the streets of Ouaga, "The Koro of Bakoro, the Survivors of Faso" is above all a view from the inside. Simplice Herman Ganou is as familiar as Polo and his gang with the streets where they live, trying to sell salvaged solar lamps that have been customised “with a flavour of Bakoro”.

Leaving one's family at 7, 12 or 16 years old. Taking up residence in front of a shop, in a video store, outside a bus station. Learning to do drugs, beg, steal, flee, and fight. Making friends and enemies. Integrating into a new world. Five Bakoroman on the road from their village to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital city, in pursuit of a better life.

At home in Burkina Faso, filmmaker Simplice Herman Ganou usually documents human relationships. A new project takes him to Winterthur in Switzerland, where he has trouble making contacts. How can he find a story, if no one will talk to him? Will he be able to overcome people’s fear of the unknown?

In northern Burkina Faso, water is a scarce commodity. The effects of human activity on the climate have caused migration, and the Oursi pond is the only source of water in the area. At the same time, technological advances seem as fascinating as they are naive. A meditation on science, the meaning of development, human ambition, and the treasures that surround us.