Xaraasi Xanne (Crossing Voices)

synopsis

Using rare cinematic, photographic, and sound archives, Xaraasi Xanne (Crossing Voices) recounts the exemplary adventure of Somankidi Coura, an agricultural cooperative created in Mali in 1977 by western African immigrant workers living in workers’ residences in France. The story of this improbable, utopic return to the homeland follows a winding path that travels through the ecological challenges and conflicts on the African continent from the 1970s to the present day. To tell this story, Bouba Touré, one of the principal actors, returns to the heart of his personal archives, documenting peasant struggles in France and Mali as well as following the personal stories of migrant workers over many decades. The film is a story of transmission, kinship, and cinematographic geographies: throughout it, voices come to accompany Bouba and bring forth the narrative of a forgotten memory leading towards the future.

about the directors

Raphaël Grisey (born 1979) lives in Berlin. Grisey uses film, editorial, and photographic works to address politics of memory, architecture, migration, and agriculture, such as the films Prvi Deo, Red Star (2006, with Florence Lazar); Cooperative (2008); The Exchange of Perspectives; Minhocão (2011); Amor e Progresso (2014); and Remanescentes (2015).

Bouba Touré (1948–2022) lived in Paris and Somankidi Coura, Mali. He lived in France at the Foyer Pinel from 1965 and worked at the Chausson metal factory until 1969. He studied at Vincennes University and was a projectionist at Cinema 14 Juillet and L’Entrepôt, Paris. A photographer since the 1970s, he documented the lives and struggles of migrant workers and peasants in France and Mali. Touré co-founded the co-op of Somankidi Coura in 1977.

In 2015, he published the book Notre Case est à Saint-Denis (Xérographes).

Since the 1980s, Touré has exhibited works and given talks in associative and foyer circles, and more recently in art institutions. His photographic work has been presented, among other places, at the Bamako Encounters (2019) and the Hamburg Photography Triennale (2022).

Since 2006, Touré and Grisey have worked together on collaborative projects under the current name Sowing Somankidi Coura, a Generative Archive, ongoing since 2015. It has led to various workshops and film and theatre productions, for example with the theatre group Kàddu Yaraax in 2017 and 2019, as well as publications and texts, such as Sowing Somankidi Coura, a Generative Archive (Archive Books, 2017). Their work has been shown, among other venues, at the Kàddu Yaraax Theatre Forum Festival, Kunsthall Trondheim (Norway), Archive Kabinett, Savvy Contemporary, HKW, Neue Berliner Kunstverein, Den Frie, the 9th Contour Biennale (Belgium), Parco Arte Vivente, Un lieu pour respirer, Centre Pompidou, Dhaka Art Summit, Open Justice, and Konsthall Göteborg.

Their feature-length film Xaraasi Xanne (Crossing Voices) received awards in 2022 at Cinéma du Réel, the African Film Festival of Tarifa (Spain), Monde en vues (Guadeloupe), and Archivio Aperto (Bologna, Italy).