Feature film
Jom
Ababacar Samb-Makharam · 1981
Synopsis
A hard strike drags on in a factory in Dakar against corrupt bosses, and the workers begin to split. Khaly, the griot, comes to support them, then begins to tell stories. His tales open onto other eras: Prince Dieri Dior Ndella, who died resisting the colonial conquest, then Koura Thiaw, an artist who in the forties took the side of Dakar's domestic servants. From one time to another circulates what the griot calls the jom, at once courage, dignity and self-respect.
Context
The film runs an hour and twenty minutes, shot on thirty-five millimetre and spoken in Wolof; the cinematography is by Peter Chappell and Orlando Lopez, the music by Lamine Konté, and Oumar Guèye plays the griot. It was produced in Dakar by Baobab Film, the company of its author. The construction breaks with chronology: the storyteller's speech spans the eras, from the conquest to the forties and the present day. After Cannes, it was shown in 1983 at the New York and San Francisco festivals.
Who it is for
Eighty minutes in subtitled Wolof. One has to accept following a voice rather than a plot: the periods succeed one another with no warning of the change.
Prizes and reception
Selected for the Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982, then shown at several American festivals.
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