Doxandem, the dream chasers
Logline
Mamadou returns from Spain with a goal to build a cultural centre in his village and to show the youth that they do not need to go far to find their Eldorado. Assisted by his Spanish wife and his elderly mother, he has to overcome cultural shock, hostility and scepticism to show what post-colonial living means.
Synopsis
Mamadou is back in Gandiol, his home village, after being a migrant for many years in Spain. From this experience, he wrote a book, where he expresses his hopes. With Laura and his wife, they built a community of Senegalese and Spanish volunteers. Together, they try to embody a post-colonial living despite the cultural shocks they face, the management of living space, and hostilities. Under the gentle gaze of Yaaye Khadi, Mamadou’s mother, bridge to the village’s tradition, they undertake the building of the largest community development centre in the area. It is a huge challenge for Mamadou and Laura as they are convinced of the relevance of their project. Here is a real conflict of chasers of dreams: a difference in vision and hopes. Mamadou builds his dream, but many young people in the village perceive him as a slayer of their own dream, a dream of leaving. Will Mamadou and his family manage to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of their utopia? The film accompanies Mamadou in his quest to try to see his dream realised and his choices and their impacts on the life and personality of this eternal traveller.
Director
Saliou Sarrt
Senegalese artist, Saliou Sarr is a busy bee gathering from multiple universes, from theatre to cinema and music. As a writer, composer and director, his nectar is making a contribution to the universality of language, culture and representations. He is convinced that art can bring changes and cinema can help to rebuild the way African people see themselves. He cherishes traditions, yet with an eye to the future, whose bold and vigorous voice he can already hear. With him, we transcend unimaginable borders, grasping the full meaning of the word “orality”. We accompany him too in a rich contemplation, under the auspices of a quasi-spiritual credo: Africa is the present.
Producers
Yanis Gaye
GOREE ISLAND CINEMA
Yanis Gaye is a French Senegalese producer and cultural programmer. After his studies at the Sorbonne University and the EHESS in Paris, focusing on philosophy of art, he became one of the co-founders of Goree Island Cinéma. Through this entity, he acts as an editorial and artistic coordinator, ensuring the development of several projects mainly around the film industry (creative workshops, film production development, cultural events). He is the director of the Gorée Cinema Festival, created in 2015. In 2019, he also joined the production company Boul Fallé Images as an associate producer, working alongside the Senegalese filmmaker Rama Thiaw.
Don Edkins
STEPS
Don Edkins is a South African documentary filmmaker and producer based in Cape
Town. He has produced documentary film projects that have been broadcast around
the world, such as Steps for the Future, Why Democracy? and Why Poverty? earning
multiple international awards, including an Oscar for Taxi to the Dark Side, and the
Special Teddy Award at the 63rd Berlinale for Steps for the Future. The Peabody
awarded Why Poverty? Project, with documentary films from 21 countries, was
screened globally by 70 broadcasters. He is Executive Producer of AfriDocs, a free-to-
view VOD platform and broadcast strand across Africa that screens the best African
and international documentary films. He is currently producing a new documentary film
project with African filmmakers across the continent, Generation Africa, around the
theme of migration. He is a mentor for the Berlinale Talents, Durban FilmMart, and
Docs by the Sea in Indonesia, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Tiny Mungwe
STEPS
Tiny Mungwe is a documentary film and arts producer. She currently works at STEPS
(Social Transformation and Empowerment Projects) where she produces Generation
Africa, a pan-African anthology of 25 documentary films from 16 countries in Africa, on
the topic of migration. Mungwe’s films include Akekho uGogo, a 48 minute
documentary about urban youth culture, which screened at several festivals including
the Durban International Film Festival, Apollo Film Festival and DOKANEMA Festival.
Her short film script Evelyn was selected for the National Film and Video Foundation
(NFVF) Women Filmmaker Project and she directed another short film in the program,
Daddy’s Boy. She has written for some of the highest rating South African television
dramas such as Muvhango and Matatiele, and was one of the directors on the series
Uzalo. For several years she worked as a festival organizer and programmer for four
international festivals, namely Time of the Writer, the Durban International Film
Festival, Jomba! Contemporary Dance Festival and Poetry Africa. During that time she also worked on the program for Durban FilmMart (the co-production market of the festival) and Talents Durban (a career development program for emerging African filmmakers in partnership with Berlinale Talents). She continues to work as a program curation associate for the Durban FilmMart. She also programmed and curated the city of Durban’s inaugural book and art fair, ARTiculate Africa.
