Alassane Diago

The Senegal River forms the national border between Mauritania and Senegal. In 1989, war broke out between these countries, along and around the river. Both sides committed atrocities. Senegalese filmmaker Alassane Diago was just a young child at the time. Now he brings together his “Senegalese and Mauritanian family,” all victims or witnesses of the bloodbath, so they can talk in detail about their traumatic experiences. He wants to find the truth, and to bring about reconciliation. Why did they slaughter each other, and why were so many people “deported”? Was there systemic racism involved, under the white and Arab elite? Was it a case of ethnic cleansing?

After two years absence, Alassane Diago comes back to his village in Senegal’s Futat region to try and understand how and why his mother has spent so many years waiting for the return of her husband, who went away to work elsewhere.

Today I became a man like my father, I go to meet him to find out what has kept him abroad for so many years without sending us any news, without providing for his children, his wife, without coming home…

The Senegal River forms the national border between Mauritania and Senegal. In 1989, war broke out between these countries, along and around the river. Both sides committed atrocities. Senegalese filmmaker Alassane Diago was just a young child at the time. Now he brings together his “Senegalese and Mauritanian family,” all victims or witnesses of the bloodbath, so they can talk in detail about their traumatic experiences. He wants to find the truth, and to bring about reconciliation. Why did they slaughter each other, and why were so many people “deported”? Was there systemic racism involved, under the white and Arab elite? Was it a case of ethnic cleansing?

After two years absence, Alassane Diago comes back to his village in Senegal’s Futat region to try and understand how and why his mother has spent so many years waiting for the return of her husband, who went away to work elsewhere.

Today I became a man like my father, I go to meet him to find out what has kept him abroad for so many years without sending us any news, without providing for his children, his wife, without coming home…