Senegalese Meet

Senegalese Meet

(Les Senegalaises et la Senegauloise), Alice Diop / F, 2007
original version / Czech and English subtitles, 56 min

Alice Diop was born in France to Senegalese parents. As an adult and an emancipated woman she returns to her country of origin to make a film about contemporary Senegalese women of different generations. Armed with a small video camera, she spends days with relatives who she had previously hardly known, following the everyday joys of the energetic Nené and her two daughters. Different views on life emerge in interviews with the protagonists. While Nené tries to improve her family's lives and engages in small business activities, her adult daughter dreams of emigration or at least making a good marriage. The director muses about what she would dream of if she grew up in a culture with particular traditions and opinions on the position of women, love and polygamy. As well as tracing her own family roots in Senegal, the director discovers her own femininity. An authentic and sensitive approach to the subject characterise this simply shot but persuasive documentary.