Ibrahima Mbaye

Les Pirogues Des Hautes Terres

Kënu

A Senegalese bank-robber born and raised in France is getting over a disastrous heist. As he considers going straight, his cousin calls him from Dakar with an easy opportunity.

Bizet's Carmen gets a modern adaptation. Seducting, provocating, sensual. All the ingredients for a perfect drama. With her charm, Karmen gets out of many situations.

Arranged to marry a rich man, young Ada is crushed when her true love goes missing at sea during a migration attempt — until a miracle reunites them.

Mati, a divorced mother of a young daughter, makes a living selling bric-a-bric from a wheelbarrow and dreams of opening a snack bar. But she falls for the charms of Naago, a cop, and it's only when the Tajaboom festival (at which women and men switch roles) arrives that her opportunity for escape emerges.

A Senegalese man living in Paris with his French wife and children receives a letter from his father back home saying he has arranged for him to take a second wife. The man's indecision outrages his French wife and leads to the end of his marriage, his return to Senegal and his reflection about how his life has ended up.

A story about desire, choice and the freedom (or lack of it) of young people forced into a traditional practice where a male tags a girl at birth for marriage in adulthood.

Awa, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, is happily living her teenage years alongside her twin brother Adama who dreams of Europe. When their grandmother dies, her aunt Fatou and her uncle Atoumane promise to marry in order to preserve the family union. But Fatou does not love Atoumane and the latter, tired of waiting to consummate his marriage, commits an act from which there is no going back.

1759. Mauritius is in the hands of the Kingdom of France. Massamba and Mati, two slaves in the plantation of Eugène Larcenet, live a life of fear and toil. He dreams for his daughter to be freed, while she longs to leave the green hell of sugarcane. One night, she runs away. Madame La Victoire, a famous slave huntress, is tasked with tracking her down. Massamba has no choice but to escape from the plantation in his turn. By doing so, he becomes a “maroon”, a fugitive who breaks forever with the colonial order…

In a ficticious “gulf republic” president Koyaga rules. His countless lies and crimes are revealed in the songs of the griot, the West African story-teller. After 21 years of dictatorship his rule finds an end through a coup d’état. Koyaga flees to his native village in order to regain the basis of his power in a magical way employing his mother’s and a village wizard’s help. The film is a satirical look at the rulership of African dictators and the unfortunate mingling of mythology,magic and politics