Moussa Sène Absa: A Retrospective
program description
Cinelogue is proud to present a retrospective of essential works by Senegalese filmmaker Moussa Sène Absa, a multidisciplinary artist whose cinema fuses music, politics, gender, and spiritual inquiry into a multilayered portrait of postcolonial Senegal. Born in 1958 in the Dakar suburb of Tableau Ferraille, Absa’s practice – as painter, playwright, musician, and director – unfolds through his films, which challenge dominant narratives while embracing the contradictions of post-colonial Senegalese life.
This retrospective includes his acclaimed trilogy about the lives and labor of women struggling with entrenched patriarchal and socioeconomic systems: Tableau Ferraille (1997), Madame Brouette (2002), and Xalé (2022). These works form a throughline in Absa’s sustained attention to and critique of gendered violence and the failures of post-independence governance.
Films like Yoole and Jëf Jël confront the Atlantic crossing not as a romantic pursuit of opportunity, but as an enforced trajectory shaped by enduring neocolonial economic structures. In Ça Twiste à Poponguine (1993), the impact of Western cultural imperialism takes center stage, refracted through youthful identity, music, and rivalry in a seaside town.
Throughout these seven works, Absa’s cinema is rhythmically charged, visually lyrical, and unwavering in its critique of the political and cultural forces shaping contemporary Senegal.
about the curator
Jacqueline Nsiah is part of the Berlinale selection committee and co-curator of the Africa Film Festival Cologne. Some of her past roles include the Cambridge African Film Festival and the Festival do Rio. She was co-director and curator of the African film festival UHURU in Rio de Janeiro, and a programmer for Film Africa in London. Jacqueline Nsiah was the project manager for a film platform at the Goethe Institut and was member of the selection committee at Berlinale Forum for the past four editions and co-curated the special programme “Fiktionsbescheinigung”. She received her M.A. in Visual and Media Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin and a B.A. in African Studies and Politics from SOAS University in London.
Senegal, 2000, 57m
Mory has been living in France for several years. He has many friends and gets married to a European with whom he has three children.
Senegal / Ivory Coast, 2022, 1h 41m
Awa, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, is happily living her teenage years alongside her twin brother Adama who dreams of Europe.
Senegal / France, 1998, 52m
On Baye Fall spirituality. The "Baay Faal" are members of the sub-brotherhood dedicated to serving the Mouride marabouts.
Senegal, 2010, 1h 10m
In April 2006, a small boat was found drifting aimlessly along the eastern coast of Barbados. Local fishermen left the boat alone for many weeks, assuming it had something to do with drug smuggling. It later emerged that the boat contained the bodies of 11 Senegalese people who had set out to Europe four months earlier.
Senegal, 2002, 1h 44m
Proud and independent, Mati, also known as Madame Brouette (“Mrs. Wheelbarrow”), makes a living by pushing her wheelbarrow through the marketplace in Sandaga, Senegal.
Senegal, 1997, 1h 29m
Tableau Ferraille is a working-class neighborhood about ten kilometers outside Senegal's capital, Dakar. It is on the coast and populated by fishermen, but despite the coconut trees and colorful boats, it is no paradise.
Senegal, 1994, 1h 27m
In post-colonial Senegal in the 1960s, teenagers in a small village form two small rival cliques: Les Ins, who prefer French pop singers, and The Kings, who favor American music.
