In the heart of Mali's capital, Bamako, a local court trial takes place in a courtyard while life goes on around them. Through this trial, the film delves into issues of colonialism, globalization, and the influence of the World Bank and the IMF. It serves as an allegory for the struggles faced by African nations in seeking justice and independence.

In war-torn Chad, a hotel pool attendant is forced to give up his job to his son when the hotel owner decides to support the war effort. As the man searches for his missing son, he grapples with the unfairness of his dismissal and the devastating consequences of the conflict.

A young biracial woman raised in France travels to Burkina Faso in search of the mother she hasn’t seen in many years. Meanwhile, in Paris, an émigré from Burkina Faso who makes her living as a cleaner teaches the Dioula language to a white middle-class office worker, in this affecting story of global displacement.

Faro is a real goddess of a real tribe (the Bamana) in the West African country of Mali. In a landlocked country like Mali, covered in part by the Sahara Desert, water is a resource that can never be taken for granted. The Bamana village in Faro: Goddess of the Waters not only sits on a riverbank, but also depends for much of its food on fish from the river. Faro is the dominant character in this film, the unseen force for which all action takes place. (c) Ferdy on Films [Marilyn Ferdinand]

When an elderly man reveals that his son Hammala is the illegitimate son of a purported witch, the ugly side of social customs rears its head. Shunned by the community, an ashamed Hammala leaves the village, only to return four years later, despite his outcast status.