DJELIYA, MEMORY OF MANDINGO (12+)

Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, France, 2026, color, 112 min.

Director: Boubacar Sangaré

Russian premiere

DoP – Isso Emmanuel Bationo

SOUND – Seydou G. Porgo, Manuel Vidal

Sékou Timité has one ambition: to follow in his late father's footsteps and become a "Djeli", a griot, guardian of the oral memory in West Africa. Being the only one of his siblings to take an interest in the obsolete art of the griot, he leaves his family and his Malian village behind and sets off to confront the world on the roads of the legendary Mandingo Empire.

Torn between his desire for greatness, his family's material needs and the time-consuming apprenticeship, he confronts the obstacles of a sometimes chaotic present and crosses paths with some of the region's greatest griots, as well as with ordinary people struggling with everyday life. His journey of initiation becomes a poetic portrait of a West Africa in search of its common memory.

AWARDS:

Visions du Réel International Film Festival (Nyon, Switzerland, 2026) – Special Mention

Boubacar Sangaré

Filmmaker, writer-director, and lawyer originally from Burkina Faso who lives in France. As part of a generation of African filmmakers seeking to revitalize storytelling, he is part of a tradition in which cinema serves as a tool for collective memory and reflection.

His work is distinguished by a particular focus on marginalized voices, especially those of young people, women, and rural communities. “A golden life”, his first documentary film for the big screen, has been selected and honored at numerous international festivals. “Djeliya, Memory of Mandingo” is his second documentary film for cinema. He is currently developing several other projects, including “Les dieux délinquants”, his first feature-length fiction film.

Filmography

A Golden Life, 2023

Djeliya, memory of Mandingo, 2026