Mamadou Dia Photo Courtesy of IMDB
During this year’s Sundance Film Festival, alum Mamadou Dia sat down with The Wrap to speak on his critically-acclaimed feature Nafi’s Father.
Nafi’s Father, which is Senegal’s official entry in the Oscars International Film Category, follows the fight between an Imam and his powerful brother over their children’s marriage. The Wrap calls it “a metaphor for the insidious nature of extremism that invades the village and shows extremism — be it political, religious or cultural — is a global problem that must be addressed before a crisis happens, not after.” Dia filmed the movie in the small Senegalese town where he grew up.
“I have worked as a journalist traveling around Africa… and I just remember how Timbuktu people and Malians were so peaceful and nice,” Dia said during the panel. “But I was in America in 2016, studying at NYU when Trump got elected, which to my mind, is also political extremism. Those two moments that happened hit me really personally, and hit everyone around me. I said, ‘We should talk about that. We should talk about not only what happens when it is too late, but how do we get to that point.'”
Watch the full interview here.