DEMBA 

Mamadou Dia
Senegal/ Germany 2024 | Original Version with English Subtitles | 119 min
In the presence of the director

SAT 16 NOV
20:30 ARSENAL

The focus of Mamadou Dia’s second feature film is a lonely widower struggling with the loss of his wife Awa. After being forced into early retirement after 30 years at the town hall of a small town, Demba experiences a mental breakdown.

While his restless adult son Bajjo doesn’t quite know what to do with his difficult father, the deceased Awa haunts the house Demba shares with his son – even if she is initially only visible to the increasingly desperate Demba. Will Demba be able to overcome his grief without losing himself? Mamadou Dia’s very personal film about mental health, social change and cohesion, grief and loss is also a portrait of the small town of Matam on the banks of the Senegal River, the director’s hometown.

DEMBA celebrated its international premiere in the Encounters section at this year’s Berlinale.

MAMADOU DIA received his Master’s degree in Directing/Screenwriting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. His film BAAMUM NAFI (2019) premiered at Locarno, won the award for best first feature and the Golden Leopard in its section, and was the Senegalese submission for the 2021 Academy Awards. It also screened in the AFRIKAMERA program in 2019.