2013 Edition

President Dia

President Dia

Section: Short Films

Country: Senegal

Production Year: 2012

Runtime: 54 Minutes

Director: Ousmane William Mbaye

Screenwriter: Ousmane William Mbaye

Cinematographers: Stéphane de Trébonds, Jacques Pamart, Xavier Vauthrin 

Editor: Laurence Attali

Music Composer: Amadou Doukouré

Synopsis: On December 17, 1962, Mamadou Dia, President of the Senegalese Council of Ministers, was arrested and then given a life sentence, being accused of a coup d’état by his friend and companion Leopold Sedar Senghor. Dia would be imprisoned with four of his closest ministers including Joseph Mbaye, Minister of Rural Economy, who was the filmmaker’s uncle. The following day, the Constitution was modified, and the parliamentary system was succeeded by a presidential system, giving Senghor full powers. Fifty years later, while the presidential campaign of 2012 agitates the country around the values of democracy, actors and witnesses of the events of 1962 take the stand.