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Two brothers with diametrically opposed approaches to their faith are pitted against one another in this tense family drama.
For the respected and practically minded imam of a small town in Senegal, the betrothal of his teenage daughter should be a happy occasion. There’s just one catch, however: she’s marrying the son of the imam’s power-hungry, hardline brother, who threatens to sweep her up in his extremist milieu. While the young lovers dream of city life and relative freedom, the long-held resentments between their fathers – along with the broader struggle between the traditional Islam and militant fundamentalism that they respectively adhere to – bubbles to the surface, playing out with catastrophic consequences.
Winner of Best First Feature and the Filmmakers of the Present Golden Leopard at the 2019 Locarno Film Festival, Mamadou Dia’s longform debut unflinchingly confronts social upheaval in contemporary West Africa, where the fault lines between tradition and ideology, love and acrimony, intersect in unexpected and devastating ways.
“Engrossing … Dia grants his characters warmth and humor in their struggles and makes the story feel fresh without compromising on drama.” – Variety