Catalogue

After many years as a tourist guide in the Slave museum in Senegal, Alloune, 65, a widower living alone, decides to go to America, in search of his ancestors, taken away from his village two hundred years ago and sold as slaves in the New World. From Charleston to Little Senegal, in New York, he searches for his ancestors but also for an ideal vision of an African family, only to discover a strong ostracism between the African and African American communities, embodied by his nephew Hassan, a cab driver and his girlfriend Biram, an African with modern views on love and marriage ; and Ida, an older woman, faced with seeing her pregnant granddaughter destroyed by hard life on the street.

Awards

2001

Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale)
* Official Competition – Nominated Golden Berlin Bear

Beyrouth International Film Festival
* Jury Prize

Cologne Mediterranean Film Festival
* Best film
* Best actor for Sotigui Kouyaté

Florence French Film Festival (“France Odeon”)
* Jury Prize

Milan African Film Festival
* Grand Prize

Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film
* Golden Bayard Best artistic contribution
* Golden Bayard Best actor for Sotigui Kouyaté
* ACCT Promotional Award

Troïa International Film Festival
* Jury Special Prize
* OCIC Award

Tübingen French Film Festival
* Youth Award

Valladolid International Film Festival
* FIPRESCI – International Critic’s Prize

2002

Innsbruck Film Festival
* Francophone Intitute Award