Dakar, Jan 14 (APS) – The first feature-length fiction film ”Une si longue lettre” by Senegalese director Angèle Diabang was selected in the official ”Perspectives” selection of the 29th edition of the Pan-African Festival of Cinema and Ouagadougou television (Fespaco), the APS learned from the organizing committee.
The official selection was unveiled on Tuesday in N’Djamena, the Chadian capital, guest country of honor.
This work by Angèle Diabang is an adaptation of Mariama Ba’s novel ”Une si longue lettre” and whose work lasted twelve years, said the director during a panel on the adaptation at the last Women’s Book Fair (December 21 to 22).
”Santa Allah! It’s a pleasure to defend Senegal, I’m very happy to represent my country at Fespaco with this major work of our literature,” director Angèle Diabang reacted on the phone. According to her, this project was ”long and painful and full of lessons”.
”(…) I learned a lot cinematographically and humanly with this project. (…) even if I wanted to give up, I didn’t have the courage to give up because everyone said that sunu film there [C’est notre film] and I was forbidden to give up,” she adds.
Angèle Diabang affirms that it is ”a real challenge to adapt this novel”. ”What made me want it is that we are in a generation where we no longer read, and adapting novels will make it possible to reconcile an entire population with these magnificent works that we are losing and that others come and take (…) I hope that this film will succeed in getting people talking about the novel again,” the director reacted while talking about her project which will be screened at Fespaco 2025.
”Such a long letter” will have its African premiere at Fespaco, she announced.
In the same ”Prepectives” section also appears the fiction ”Timpi Tampa (Empreinte)” by young filmmaker Adama Bineta Sow, whose film is also included in the ”Fespaco sukabé” section dedicated to children.
-The organizing committee revealed the rest of the selections, ”Perspectives” and ”Thomas Sankara Prize for Pan-Africanism”, and the participants in the various Yennenga workshops of the next Fespaco.
Senegal will be represented in the ”Thomas Sankara Prize for Pan-Africanism” section with the documentary film ”Yambo Ouologuem, the wound” by Kalidou Sy.
According to the organizing committee, the opening film of the 29e edition will be ”Black Tea” by the Mauritanian Abderrahmane Sissako.
Chadian director Mahamat Saleh Haroun announces that he will host a master class.
Here is the list of Senegalese films selected for Fespaco 2025:
FKS/ASG
