Senegalese filmmaker Mamadou Dia: "Understanding how we got there"

Text by: Siegfried Forster

"Nafi's father" is one of the flagship films of the Vues d'Afrique festival. Because of Covid-19, the great meeting of African films in North America has turned into digital publishing. The Senegalese director Mamadou Dia, winner of the Golden Leopard, shows his fiction there, shot as a poular, on the tilting of a small Senegalese city in religious extremism. Interview.

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His first feature film "The father of Nafi" is scheduled this Thursday, April 23 and Friday, April 24 at Vues d'Afrique, in Montreal, Canada. What does it mean to approach religious extremism when everyone only talks about the coronavirus? What does it represent for the Senegalese director Mamadou Dia to be confined to the United States and to show his film at a digital festival accessible everywhere in Canada?

RFI: How are you living in this era of confinement?

Mamadou Dia: It's a challenge. It is also a challenge to learn to live with it. I remember when it started, with rumors from China, the first information about the coronavirus, we were in the middle of promoting the film in Senegal. We released it in theaters in Senegal. We also decided, with my partner, to buy a projector and a giant screen to show the film throughout the region. We had to stop everything ...

Are you currently in the United States?

Right now, I'm in the United States. I finished my master's degree at New York University in 2017. Since then, I have been going back and forth between the United States and Senegal. And right now, I'm in Virginia, in the United States, where I often give workshops, courses, at the University of Virginia. So, I arrived here, I had to go back to Senegal to continue the work, but since the airports are closed ...

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Nafi's father is a fiction on religious extremism, filmed in your mother tongue, the poular. The story takes place in Africa, in the north of Senegal, near the border with Mauritania. But considering the career of the film, the message of your first feature film seems to be universal. You won with your self-produced film two Golden Leopards in Locarno, Switzerland, the Discovery Prize at the Fiff in Namur, Belgium, currently, it is scheduled at Vues d'Afrique, in Canada ...

Father de Nafi tells a very personal story in the sense that it begins with the story of a marriage, a family unit. The small town in the film is my hometown, Matam. This is where I grew up before going to Dakar, to university. It's a life I know well. It is a common life where decisions are generally taken in community. The marriages of my sisters, my cousins, many were decided in this way.

For you, what is the crucial question of the film?

In the film, I asked myself the question: what would happen if someone in this society decided to corrupt the core of this marriage, of this aspect of common life. The second idea of ​​the film comes from another fact. Since I arrived in the United States, in 2014, each time when I said that Senegal is 90% Muslim, that I am Muslim and grandson of imam, I always get a look that I do not arrive not to read. And I'm starting to justify myself by saying: "In Senegal, it's different. In sub-Saharan Africa, we live religions in a different way ”. But each time, I tell myself why I have to justify myself to be a Muslim? While the majority of Muslims in the world are people of peace.

The film's third idea comes from yet another fact. When I finished my studies in the United States, Donald Trump got elected. In New York, it was a shock. I remember, at school, people were crying, we didn't believe it at all. So this point was added to the scenario. How could we get there? How can a city like Timbuktu, Mali, which I visited as a journalist before and after the invasion, fall [into the hands of the jihadists, note]? How to detect warning signs? Nafi's father discusses the process of how a city can be caught. How does a family break up, break up?

Mamadou Dia ("Nafi's father"): "Digital is going to be a part of the future of cinema"

At the Vues d'Afrique festival, several African films tackle the phenomenon of terrorism and religious fanaticism. Today, when the whole world seems to be talking only about the coronavirus, has it become less important to talk about religious extremism?

That's a very good question. This film was made when we did not know the Covid-19. This pandemic scares and surprises us. It is therefore normal that we should think of this more than anything else. Hopefully we will beat this virus soon. Other issues such as terrorism, drug trafficking or human trafficking will come back after.

► Also read: Tunisia: Gabès Cinéma Fen, the first online cinema festival in the Arab world

In Le Père de Nafi, you observe several microcosms within a changing society. Tierno, the father, dreams of an honest society. Ousmane, his brother who has become a fundamentalist, dreams of power. Nafi, the girl, dreams of becoming a doctor. What do you think are the different dreams and ideals that collide in the current crisis caused by the coronavirus?

Here in the United States, according to polls, it is unfortunate that we see that the voters of the Republicans are less afraid of the virus and that the voters of the Democrats are more afraid of the virus. It is interesting to see how political colors influence our thinking in relation to a virus that is there, that is real. These are really ideas that collide. These are political ideas exposed in the field of power.

In Nafi's father, it's the same thing. We all have dreams. Everyone has a different dream. And sometimes it happens that in a family, like in Tierno's family, our dreams conflict with other dreams. In the film, no one is inherently bad or good. We are all human beings who want to live our dreams. Sometimes we can make sacrifices and these sacrifices influence the other people next to us. It's like with the coronavirus. You have to understand how we got there. How can a family change forever? Like the world, with the coronavirus, which will change forever.

What changes for you when you show your film in a digital edition of Vues d'Afrique, that is to say accessible for 48 hours on a platform, free, across Canada?

We were scheduled to be in Canada, with Aicha Talla playing the role of Nafi. It was his first film. We were very happy and honored to travel to Canada together. Then the virus arrived and everything fell into the water. We wanted to meet the public, in a large cinema hall. Showing the film today as part of a digital edition is a very good idea. This allows an audience, in addition to the audience who wanted to come to the festival. It's the bright side. But we no longer have this affinity with the public, to shake hands, to answer questions, to meet other directors, actors, producers ... All that, we lost.

► Also read: Between cinema and VoD, cinema at the time of the coronavirus

Today, it is the coronavirus that prevents the holding of film festivals, but tomorrow, it may be the danger of terrorism or something else. Could digital festivals now be part of the future of cinema?

I think digital is starting to be a part of the future of cinema, in the sense that we don't really have a choice. In reality, there were already several festivals with platforms that offered this, such as in Rotterdam or Locarno. There were already platforms that offered certain selected films to be shown to people who were not on site.

I also imagine the situation in Senegal, where there are not many film festivals. There are one or two that hold up as best they can. We don't have many films. This digital switchover would allow certain subscribers of certain platforms, or even people from certain countries, to be able to watch the film. This could be an advantage. I think we are going to move more and more towards that. The future will tell, but I think it's good to have a digital festival.

► The father of Nafi, a film by Mamadou Dia, is scheduled for April 23 and 24 at the Vues d'Afrique festival. The digital edition, distributed on the platform www.tv5unis.ca , is only accessible in Canada.

► Vues d'Afrique, the 36th edition of the Festival of African and Creole Cinema in Montreal takes place from April 17 to 26 on the TV5 Québec-Canada platform, only accessible in Canada.

► Read also: Burkinabe cinema victim of the coronavirus

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