Mossane Film
Safi Faye | Senegal 1996 | 1h45m | Wolof with English subtitles
Synopsis
In this stunning Senegalese drama, a beautiful village girl finds herself torn between potential husbands, and between tradition and modernity. Mossane is an extraordinary beauty. She is in love with Fara, a young student, but she has been betrothed to another. She dislikes her rich fiancee, Diogoye, but he sends money and gifts to the villagers. Unable to follow her dreams and bound by tradition, Mossane takes action and tragedy ensues.
Safi Faye was the first black woman from sub-Saharan Africa to direct a fiction feature film in 1975, and is thus the female pioneer of African cinema, on a par with her compatriots Ousmane Sembene and Djibril Diop Mambety. Mossane was first screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes in 1996 but has never been screened in the UK. Africa in Motion restored the film in collaboration with Titra Film in France.
This event is part of AiM’s focus on Africa’s Lost Classics, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).