France’s The Party Film Sales has acquired worldwide sales rights on Mamadou Dia’s Demba, ahead of the film’s world premiere in Encounters at the Berlinale.
It is the second feature from Senegalese filmmaker Dia, after 2019’s Nafi’s Father.
Demba follows a 55-year-old man near retirement - whose mental health is deteriorating after the death of his wife two years previously - who reconnects with his estranged son.
The film shot in winter 2023 in Senegal, produced by Maba Ba for Senegal’s Joyedidi in co-production with Nikole Gerhards for Germany’s NiKo Film. It received backing from the 2023 fall grants round of Qatar’s Doha Film Institute and participated in Marrakech Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops. Dialogue is in the Fulani and Pulaar languages, native to Senegal and its surrounding countries in West Africa.
Nafi’s Father won the best first feature and Filmmakers of the Present awards at Locarno in 2019, going on to play Goteborg, Rotterdam, Raindance and Melbourne film festivals. It was Senegal’s entry for the best international feature Oscar for the 2020 awards.
No comments yet