The River Is Not a Border

    Maayo wonaa keerol

    • Alassane Diago
    • France, Senegal, Germany
    • 2022
    • 105 min
    • Dutch Premiere
    • Best of Fests

    The Senegal River forms the national border between Mauritania and Senegal. In 1989, war broke out between these countries, along and around the river. Both sides committed atrocities. Senegalese filmmaker Alassane Diago was just a young child at the time.

    Now he brings together his “Senegalese and Mauritanian family,” all victims or witnesses of the bloodbath, so they can talk in detail about their traumatic experiences. He wants to find the truth, and to bring about reconciliation. Why did they slaughter each other, and why were so many people “deported”? Was there systemic racism involved, under the white and Arab elite? Was it a case of ethnic cleansing?

    In understated, functional style, Diago films 40 of the people involved as they reconstruct this little-known history. They tell Diago, or each other, what they experienced. The detailed testimonies speak for themselves, but even more articulate are the victims’ facial expressions, body language, faltering and silences—as well as the tears of those who listen.

    Credits

    • 105 min
    • color
    • DCP
    • Spoken languages: French, Wolof, Arabic, Other languages
    • Subtitles in: English
    Director
    Alassane Diago
    Production
    Michel Klein for Les films hatari, IndigoMood, l’atelier documentaire, Ma.ja.de Filmproduktions GmbH, Diam Production, La Maison des Cineastes
    Cinematography
    Michel K. Zongo
    Editing
    Catherine Gouze
    Screening copy
    Pascale Ramonda

    IDFA history

    2022
    Dutch Premiere
    Best of Fests

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    IDFA history

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